Random Bits

Since I’m lacking in eloquent words again today, here’s some pics from K-man’s little party…we didn’t do anything major, but it was still fun.  =) 

In case you aren’t fluent in the force, it was a Clone Trooper Rex cake because that’s what he asked for, and we just happened across a Rex voice changer helmet on the clearance rack at wallyworld and decided he would be in love.  LOL.  He was. 














 

I think he liked it.  =)  The other day (before he got the helmet) when we were doing school, I read him the directions for what he was doing and he said, “Aye, aye, captain.”  He is too funny. 

Tonight we were playing with the kids (KC and K-man were putting together a Star Wars Lego set and Munchkin and I were making those fuse beads things) and Munchkin tells me, “Mom, yours is going to look so beautiful when you’re finished!”

A couple of seconds later, K-man says, “Mom, you’re going to look so beautiful when my man shoots him.”

Oh…okay then!  =O

Gotta Love Monday’s

Unless you’re Garfield.  Or me.  ;-)  Something about Mondays always makes me annoyed…particularly when those Mondays coincide with me needing midol.  I mean, just your average Monday means weekend cleanup, laundry catchup, not to mention the usual everyday need to get something worthwhile accomplished (not that it HAPPENS everyday, just that it NEEDS to happen everyday…lol). 

Oh well.  Life is one/seventh Mondays so I should just get over it I guess.  I really don’t want to spend one/seventh of my life being annoyed. 

I spent awhile today downloading pics off my camera.  Edited a bunch for that session I did on Saturday and had a few minutes tonight to work on some personal ones.  I have a bunch more personal ones that need editing but I’m just not in the mood right now, plus I’m running out of time.  =) 

And since I’m out of time, I’m gonna hop off here, but before I go, here’s pics from Munchkin’s school fall fest on Friday night.  ;-) 
Kids coming down the giant inflatable. ^  Munchkin just loves the camera…lol. ^

OMW!  The fangs and her expression!?! ^      Daddy and kids….awwww…. ^

They graciously offered to use my camera to take this shot and saved us six tickets…lol!   At least we’re all together and half of us are smiling…lol…the other half aren’t sure.  And K-man…I think he was ready to go find the food.  Oh well.

Sunday Linkies

Here’s a few things I’ve found on the internets this week that I like and/or want to try…  Since I’m not feeling the creative blogging urge today, I’m substituting.  *grin* 

• This leaf in the frame is from a blog called Cottage Hill…I just like the idea for decor…it’s a thrift store frame redone…I could see this as a group of three hanging in a hallway…not just for fall either…i like it!  =) 
• Here’s a second tutorial from Cottage Hill on the leaf in the frame idea…i LUV it!  Gotta try it! 
• Then there’s this sheet music lamp shade recovering…i like, i like.  It’s from Tending the Nest and she used it as a hanging light, but I could see it used as an actual lampshade, too.   Something about recreating using printed pages just hits my happy spot.  I just like it! 
• An autumn-y front entry by Cleared For Takeoff…I need to do something to ours…I’m thinking a wreath, too, but I’m just not sure what I want.  LOL.  Maybe one that says “I Miss Summer” (LOL)
• This is just a neat idea for a gift or even for personal use (subway art print from Endless Crafting)…i love the saying!
• I’ve seen it before, but I really love the block idea (these are by More Than Just Mom).  Oh and by the way, if you read my blog and get a gift from me at any time that looks similar to any of these things, pretend to be surprised, okay?  =)
• I love furniture re-do’s…they take so much time that I hate tackling them myself, but the finished products are soooo yum…check out this table redo from Hydrangea Home.  I’m totally gonna have to try something like this…SOME DAY!  *grin*  Just not any time soon.  =)

Well, there’s more I’ve been looking at, but the hubs has already hit the sack, and it’s 10:44 and I’m tired myself, so I better get a move on.  =)  Night!

Quickly, Quickly

Because if it isn’t quickly, I won’t make it…it’s 10:42 and I have to get a post in so I don’t miss a day.  *grin*  What is it now…day 8?  Whew. .

Today was jam packed…up early, cleaned house, took a shower, and was out yard saling by 8:30, then ran by walmart to get K-man’s cake icing (it was chocolate, by the way, Jules…;-) and ran back home and grabbed my camera to do a photo session at 11.  Back home by 12:30, finished the last minute cleaning and iced up K-man’s Clone Trooper cake, my mom arrived and helped me get the rest of the food ready, and then ate around 4:30.  Wrapped that up by 6:30ish and then mom left and we decided to go to the county fair for a little while. 

*sigh*  I am also extremely sore from painting that room yesterday…apparently my legs couldn’t handle all that steppin’ up and down the stool to paint.  LOL.  Ouch.  But anyway, that plus being on my feet all day today makes me TOTALLY ready for bed!  =) 

So…here’s a post…hopefully will have a chance to do pics tomorrow.  =)  Night!

A Day and A Half

Woosh.  I am so ready for bed.  Again.  Twice in one day, that I’m ready for bed…lol. 

I got up this morning and was surprisingly awake and in a good mood.  That’s always a recipe for disaster.  Sure enough, I was walking back from the bus stop and my good mood deflated faster than you can say boo.  There were two cars coming at the same time down our street (which NEVER happens that early in the morning) so I stepped off into somebody’s yard to let them pass.  Turns out I stepped into the owner of one of those car’s yard. 

And he proceeded to roll down his window and blast me for letting my dog poop in his yard.  I was like, huh?  NO!  And the guy was like I just watched him do it and I was like, no way, he was peeing…as I hurried the dogs back onto the pavement and the dude went on up his driveway.  I was pretty sure that nothing had slipped out while she was peeing, and sure enough, when I got down to the empty lot where they usually go, both dogs did their business like good puppies, so I’m positive they didn’t do anything bad in the dude’s lawn. 

Just made me so grouchy…so I helped K-man with his school and got it wrapped up quick and then decided to go back to sleep and try the whole thing again.  LOL.  Second time around went better.  I was actually motivated (except for still being a little annoyed at grouchy neighbor) and dug out the paint and cleaning supplies and did a little bit of cleaning upstairs and then painted the one last room upstairs that had not been painted yet.  Yay! 

Munchkin’s fall fest at school was tonight…the kids enjoyed that…and I did, too, except for being extremely worn out. 

Now I’m ready for bed again but I have to wait until K-man’s cake comes out of the oven.  Trying to get a head start on tomorrow.  I’m already late with his little cake and presents thing, but since it’s his year for a small party anyway, we just worked it around our schedule. 

Speaking of cake, I think I smell it…I should go check.  Later!

Who Invited YOU?

In the car today….Munchkin is jabbering on and on about some movie she watched at school.  I was only half listening (since I’d already heard the whole story at least twice already) and inserting appropriate “uh-huh”s when necessary…

Then out of nowhere, K-man, who has apparently been listening intently to the monologue, breaks in during one of her slight pauses to ask for clarification of her last statement.

“K-man! Who invited YOU to this convaSHA-shun? I’m TALKIN’ to MOMMA!  SHUSH!”

I couldn’t resist.  I had to smile. 

But that didn’t hurt his feelings any…he just went right back to playing his game. 

Later tonight though…when we went out to celebrate signing adoption papers (FINALLY…almost three years to the day when we got the little dude), K-man was taking a drink of his sprite and I’m pretty sure he didn’t realize he had sprite instead of water.  So he takes this lonnnnng sip and looks at me and in this very offended little voice says, “Mom, this drink makes me CRY!” and I look at him and his eyes are all watery….ROFL! 

So his sister can be all rude and it doesn’t bother him, but a little carbonation kills him. 

And yay, so happy that the adoption papers are signed and on their way through the process…hopefully about a month or so…

Marvelous Grace

I’m not sure what happened to this picture to make only the very center be in focus…this was taken after I dropped that lens, so perhaps that would explain it all…*sigh*

Anyways, the story of my life these days…KC just asked me if there was any other expensive pieces of equipment I’d like to drop…that was right after I stood up five minutes ago and my computer fell off the couch (it’s not broken, thank GOD!).  KC needs more practice at rubbing things in…he’s not very good at that at ALL!  :-O 

However, while I’m not so great in the “grace” department (I’m not sure if I was born on Tuesday or not, if I was, God forgot to follow the recipe…you know…Tuesday’s child is full of grace?), I have become rather skilled in the critter capture and disposal. 

Mr. Skink up there was a capture and release…he jumped out of the sink cabinet in the basement when I opened it to clean the other day and nearly gave me a heart attack.  Once I got over that, I trapped him in a jar and took him outside and let him go.  Okay, so he got a ten minute lecture about never returning to my cabinet if he valued his life, and then I took a picture, and detained him in solitary confinement for a few hours to help him realize the seriousness of his infraction waited til KC got home so he could see how brave I was the lizard, and THEN let him go.

Then there was the ELEVEN black widows that we found all cozied up in the rock border in front of our house a week and a half ago.  (Well, KC killed most of those…I didn’t get brave until we got to Spiders 9 through 11…lol)  I didn’t take pictures of those, but rest assured, they (AND the little baby spider sacs with them) are perfectly squished and buried, never to rise again.  Except in my dreams.  *shudder*  A couple of nights ago, I had one of those dreams, where I was trying to get away from somebody (cuz you know all the best dreams have dreadful chase scenes, where you’re running but you never quite get away) and everywhere I tried to hide, the black widows were crawling all over me…EEK.  And then there was the disposing…have you ever killed a black widow?  They’re like little balloons…and when you squish them, they pop.  *shudder*  It’s the stuff nightmares are made of….

And yesterday…giant wolf spider in the garage.  Almost stepped on him.  Without  shoes on.  Then I saw him and I might have screamed…a little….and then I picked up a board and flattened him.  You know he was a big’un because all shriveled up in that dead spider pose, he’s still the size of a quarter.  (FYI: That picture ain’t of the one on my garage floor…just a random google image of a wolf spider to help you with YOUR nightmares…I know…you love me.  Don’t worry, you don’t have to thank me for this helpful visual.)

Still…I could do with a little less critter control and a little more in the grace department.  It happens so rarely, but I can actually hear KC agreeing with me.

;-) 

Almost Forgot

Whew…good thing we’re only a few days into October.  I almost forgot this was the month for the photo hunt again.  =) 
Here’s this month’s list:

1. In Disguise
2. Crisp
3. Fall Colors
4. A Jack O’lantern
5. a Shot from the Ground
6. a Landscape
7. a Fall Tradition
8. Books
9. Dining
10. Child/Children
11. Faces formed in Nature (anything that looks like a face but isn’t : examples here)
12. Tilt-Shift Photography  (Tutorial Here) (Tilt-Shift Maker here)
13. B & W with selective coloring (Tutorial here)
14. Bokeh (Tutorial here)
15. Best Photo taken October 23^rd
16. Something from the Kitchen
17. Something Vintage
18. Something Creepy
19. Something Golden
20. A Self-Portrait

Sounds rather challenging this month.  *grin*  I hope I’m up for it.  =)  But on the OTHER challenge of posting every day for an entire month, today was an easy one…lol!  ;-) 

A Single Step

It’s always so much easier to do mindless things than to sit down and actually think about what to say. 

But…in the words of somebody named Lao Tzu:

“Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”

Whoever Lao Tzu was, he was evidently the optimistic type.  ;-) Based on that optimistic approach, I could also assume that a blog post must begin with a few words. 

I’m just not sure where to go after that.  That requires so much thought…and there-in lies the reason I’ve been such a slack blogger the past few months.  I’m just lacking in thought…well…maybe not….I suppose it would be more accurate to say that I’ve been lacking in thoughts that would be appropriate to post on this blog.  LOL.  So I didn’t.  Aren’t you proud?  ;0) 

… … … …

Okay…maybe you’re just disappointed that I had inappropriate thoughts. 

What can I say?  We’re supposed to confess our faults, right? 

Fall Has Fell

Well…it appears that time is here again.  Fall has overtaken us again.  As much as I like this season, I have to admit that it’s not my favorite.  Mostly because it just means that winter is very near…and I’m SO much more of a summer kind of person.  However, there are a few saving graces to autumn. 

• Pumpkins
  *click on image for credits*
• Colorful leaves
• Apples
• Cider
• All Day Meeting at Church
• Bonfires
• S’mores

…AND…uh…I can’t think of any more.  I’m sure there are, but I just can’t think of them right now.  Could be ‘cause I’m so tired from that All Day Meeting thing.  =) 

I’m not sure why I should still be tired though, since we came home after church and all but died for two hours.  Talk about crashing.  I let the dogs out when we got home and then shut them in our room so that they wouldn’t get in trouble while we took a quick snooze because I didn’t want to lock them in their crate after being locked up virtually all weekend already.  LOL.  And we were so tired that I don’t even know what the dogs did because I fell asleep when they were tussling in the floor and I woke up to both of them up on the bed snuggling with us.  ROFL.  KC says don’t get used to it though…cuz his bed is still his bed and he’s not sharing it with the dogs on a regular basis.  *grin* 

Oh well.  ;-)  But back to Autumn…it’s definitely here.  I wore a sweater today and didn’t get hot.  *sigh*  Farewell, beloved flip-flops.  *sighhhh*

Day 2

Wow, what an original title.  ;-)  I’m sorry…I am so tired.  I couldn’t have picked a busier weekend to start this whole posting everyday thing.  LOL. 

Today was All Day Meeting at church, so we were gone all day.  It went pretty well…all things considered.  =)  I could say lots of things, but I won’t.  =)  Unfortunately, that makes for a terrible blog post, so either way I’m in trouble.  That’s my life story.  =) 

Here’s a picture for ya though…snapped it on our way to the church this morning…thought the fog coming off the water looked pretty cool. 

This is one of the few good pictures off my camera lately.  I kinda dropped my camera a couple weeks ago and I’m pretty sure the lens that was on it is messed up.  Well, I’m not pretty sure…it is.  *sigh*  You know that sick feeling you get inside you when you do something really stupid like forget to zip the bag that your camera is in and then carry it over your shoulder and then next thing you know, you feel something slipping out of your bag and you hear this crash on the floor and you know exactly what it was?  Well, I had that feeling.  I’m just glad my camera still works.  I am bummed about the lens, since it was my only good one, but at least my camera is still functioning. 

Anyway…anyone have a nice lens they’d like to donate?  LOL.  I know I’m not the only person in the world who ever does “stupid” but sometimes it gets annoying to have it be me so often.  LOL! 

I might post a few more pictures later after I go through my camera and see if anything else turned out.  That’s the thing about my other lenses…I am never quite sure.  *sigh*  Ah well.  Life goes on. 

Happy October!

OMW! I cannot believe it is OCTOBER already?!?!  I am exhausted and I don’t even feel like blogging, but I thought it would be pretty bad to attempt to post every day for the entire month and then quit before I even started.  LOL. 

Here’s some random for you:

(while watching my mom – otherwise known as Nonna to the kids – get in her car after spending an hour or so with us) “*sighhh* (very soberly) I just love her.” –K-man

(in the car on the way home from choir night – kids are in quiet time listening to music to settle down so that when we get home they will go right to bed without fuss – and by the way, it worked because K-man had already fallen asleep) “(very quietly) Excuse me? Mom?  I think something VERY bad is going to happen on Monday.”  (What?) “Well, my friend isn’t going to be my friend anymore.  I think she likes my other friend better than me.  And that’s VERY bad.”  -Munchkin

(K-man crying in the car) “I’m crying cause my head hurts.”  (Why does your head hurt?) “My head hurts because I had too much playyyyy.”  -K-man  (Mommy was bad and couldn’t help laughing…lucky for me, he didn’t take offense.)

And there…I think that’s enough words to classify as a post.  Day one – CHECK! =)