Yeah I have been totally behind on this, but hey I honestly have been busy. I keep thinking I really need to get on here and then I always run out of time.
So much has been going on the last few weeks, starting with the Strawberry Festival a few weekends ago which was a ton of fun! It was our first time and we really enjoyed it! The girls of course loved it too and it was a beautiful state park. I have never been and I cannot wait to go back! I will post pics later.
On another big note, I decided to take a leap, I seem to be doing a lot of that in the last 6 months and I must say I am kind of liking it, and start selling my nature photos. It is a true passion of mine and I am loving every minute of it. (Nature that is, not so much people) I think even more so than that is people actually like my work and want to purchase it, that is so exciting to me! I got my first photo order and mats in last Friday and it has taken off much faster than I ever thought. I placed my second photo order last night and I am going to the farmer's market in Orange on Saturday with a friend and I can't wait! I can honestly say this is something I love doing, I have always loved photography and almost pursued it in college but took another avenue and of course now I look back and wish I had followed my heart. I still have MUCH to learn but when it is something you want to do you enjoy it so much more. I am thankful for my supportive husband who is confident not only in me but with decisions I make and stands behind me. So we will see what happens right now it is just something small on the side but hey if it were to grow into something larger eventually I wouldn't mind a bit.
We are headed to good ole WV next weekend to Snowshoe, to relaxation, to fresh, crisp air, to beautiful sunrises and peaceful sunsets. I am excited to get away for a short while and Steve of course is ecstatic. He loves it up there, even more than I do. I love it don't get me wrong, but the only thing I am worried about this year is getting my beach fix. It has been far too long, 6 years too long, and I am changing that this year. So come the first week in September that will be the ONLY thing I am talkin about. But for now I am looking forward to this little family trip of ours and being able to have beautiful nature all around me. Which reminds me, I still need to find a babysitter for my bunny rabbit...
This is the first summer in oh like 8 years that I have been able to be at home and I am THRILLED! No, actually BEYOND thrilled. I didn't have to worry about finding childcare, packing lunches, rushing out the door each morning, see ya later's, none of that and it feels great! I just sit and think back to six months ago when Steve and I were faced with, do I quit and stay home? or do I continue working? I can't even sit and imagine how different life would be right now if we had decided differently. I am so happy and the only thing I can think is why did I wait so long. Why? Because of fear of the unknown, that's why. I was always so worried that it didn't work and on paper I didn't know how it would but it has. I am a planner at heart so I need to have things laid out and know the outcome or sometimes I freak out. That's just how I am, but with this big change, it has also made me change my way of thinking and I have learned a lot in these last few months. I can't wait to see what the next year will hold for us, it will be an adventure I am sure!
Showing posts with label Nature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nature. Show all posts
June 15, 2011
May 3, 2011
I just realized I need to take some pictures of Bugsy Blossom aka the bunny!
While at my parents the other day I walked around their yard trying to find any flowers, etc. I found some interesting things...
Perrrtyyy purple
Honeysuckle...Yum!
Center of a Dogwood flower, crazy how the center of the flower looks like tons of little flowers
New buds on a Pine tree
Tiny yellow flowers
An ant hill, gotta work on this, I really need to get on the ground for this but I refused since it was soaking wet
Lovely Lilly of the Valley
And another beautiful tree budding
And some had already bloomed
I Love this little pink flower
It wasn't long before Haiden wanted to jump on the trampoline! She and Cameron had a blast!
It was adorable watching her try so hard to jump...
I know they are blurry but they were having a great time!
Love this! And no Cami's socks are not normally that filthy, she just decided to walk on the wet ground.
Beautiful!
And I just had to add in this one. We were waiting for daddy while he had his stress test the other day and she was patiently waiting for him and was getting cranky because it was nap time...so we tried the ole let's take a picture distraction technique. It worked...for a few minutes at least.
And can I just say I never really realized but I have a pretty controversial I don't even know if that's the right word group of friends. That's not a bad thing, I just find it interesting. It shows at some of the most unexpected moments and I think that it's great that each person has their own views and opinions.
I am the type of person who will tell you my opinion and I will listen to yours however I will not sit and debate or try to persuade you to change your views unless I feel SO very strongly about it that I am compelled to. I am happy to just agree to disagree. I feel like that is why God made each person different and that's why we all have our own views because no two people on this earth are the same. I could go on but I think that pretty much says it clearly...
March 27, 2011
the storm's aftermath...
I really wanted to blog last night but I had a date....with my pillow...and I couldn't be late for my date so my blogging had to wait.
A short time ago an F5 tornado hit Cameron's room...it was a disaster....
haha well that's how I feel anyways...Steve and I spent several hours in her room with her one evening a few months back doing exactly this. We told her that she would be in trouble if she couldn't keep her room clean. And well 5 months later it looks terrible.
So yesterday Cameron and I had the task of conquering her room. I am not talking just picking up but cleaning, organizing, getting rid of toys that have been ignored for the last 6 months, going through all her clothes, etc. It was a task to say the least. We spent 5 hours straight in there and then took a lunch break and went back at it for another hour. I told her I was ready to get out of her room by the time we were done.
So here it is from the beginning...and it was worse than this but she had started to pick up some.
This corner was really bad...she just threw anything and everything over here.
Not to mention she had done the exact same thing in her closet...oh and her drawers, oh and the floor... should I keep going?
When we first started I was frustrated and short and somewhat snippy with Cameron because I was upset she had let her room get to this point. I have sent her to her room countless times, told her to pick up and obviously she hadn't been. About a month ago I thought to myself its past the point of her doing it, I am going to have to go in there and help her because she can't fix it on her own and that's where I left it. I guess I was hoping a magical maid would come one day and clean it or that maybe Cameron would surprise me and actually clean her room up and put stuff where it belonged but neither happened so yesterday was the day. After about 15 mins of having a bad attitude I decided oh hell just drop the tude and get it done so it can be nice and neat and then I was better. Cameron's room doesn't always look this bad and normally I don't let it get this bad BUT with that was going on in the last two month's with my grandma and us running back and forth almost daily to Fairfax that was the absolute last thing on my mind. Secondly, I am not a believer in letting my children make whatever mess they want and I just like a maid go behind them and clean it all up just for them to do it over again. I was responsible for keeping my room clean when I was a child and I think Cameron should too. Afterall, if she is in there helping out and cleaning she surely isn't going to want to mess it up tomorrow because she had to put work into making it look like this.
We got a good chunk of it done before we took a break...
we made good progress and got a lot done while Haiden was napping but then she woke up. Surprisingly she didn't mess everywhere we just cleaned.
Is that dresser tops I can actually see? :) Amazing...
And is this a desk top she can actually have space to do her homework on? Oh what are we going to do with ourselves?
And then after a bit more work we were 95% done. We still need to hang her mirror and pictures but daddy was sleeping and you should know you don't wake a sleeping bear....just kidding, he knows I love him...but seriously he sleeps through almost anything but not the pounding of a hammer on a connecting wall to our room and he had only had about 6 hours sleep from the day before so I didn't think it was a good idea.
Oh and how could I forget to mention...yes that is Haiden passed out in the middle of her floor. She said it was way too much work for her, she needed another nap.
Maybe I should take advantage of the space on her wall with chalkboard paint and write KEEP ROOM CLEAN, KEEP ROOM CLEAN x100 or CLEAN UP CLEAN UP EVERYBODY EVERYWHERE, CLEAN UP CLEAN UP CAMERON DO YOUR SHARE :) just a thought...
anyway back to the perfectly cleaned room.
She wrote me a big thank you note on her dry erase board...how sweet, made me smile and I knew she really appreciated what I had helped her do. I just realized how blurry this pic was...
Now let's hope she keeps it looking beautiful...or else...
As I sit here in this glorious red chair that I am totally in love with and look out the window, I can't say I am thrilled about the snow but I still think it's beautiful even if I didn't want it right now. I was looking forward to lovely spring weather where we could take nice long walks or spend a few hours at the park or just sit outside and enjoy the warmth, but I guess we aren't there yet so I will just have to find the beauty in snow for today. And its beauty is the peaceful silence it brings with it. I love during winter, just walking out at night when its snowing and listening to the silence and watching all the snowflakes fall.
So I took some more pictures of the tree out front the I have been photographing since it started blooming.
I do like when we get a nice white blanket of snow covering everything.
Haiden had her first powered donut today, she wasn't too sure at first. She kept licking her lips which was totally funny because she would stick her tongue out really far. But after a few licks she liked it.
And then she didn't want anymore pictures...
And on a side breakfast note, if you haven't ever tried this jelly you should because it's the best jelly I have ever had. Thanks to Catherine who got it for us.
A short time ago an F5 tornado hit Cameron's room...it was a disaster....
haha well that's how I feel anyways...Steve and I spent several hours in her room with her one evening a few months back doing exactly this. We told her that she would be in trouble if she couldn't keep her room clean. And well 5 months later it looks terrible.
So yesterday Cameron and I had the task of conquering her room. I am not talking just picking up but cleaning, organizing, getting rid of toys that have been ignored for the last 6 months, going through all her clothes, etc. It was a task to say the least. We spent 5 hours straight in there and then took a lunch break and went back at it for another hour. I told her I was ready to get out of her room by the time we were done.
So here it is from the beginning...and it was worse than this but she had started to pick up some.
This corner was really bad...she just threw anything and everything over here.
Not to mention she had done the exact same thing in her closet...oh and her drawers, oh and the floor... should I keep going?
When we first started I was frustrated and short and somewhat snippy with Cameron because I was upset she had let her room get to this point. I have sent her to her room countless times, told her to pick up and obviously she hadn't been. About a month ago I thought to myself its past the point of her doing it, I am going to have to go in there and help her because she can't fix it on her own and that's where I left it. I guess I was hoping a magical maid would come one day and clean it or that maybe Cameron would surprise me and actually clean her room up and put stuff where it belonged but neither happened so yesterday was the day. After about 15 mins of having a bad attitude I decided oh hell just drop the tude and get it done so it can be nice and neat and then I was better. Cameron's room doesn't always look this bad and normally I don't let it get this bad BUT with that was going on in the last two month's with my grandma and us running back and forth almost daily to Fairfax that was the absolute last thing on my mind. Secondly, I am not a believer in letting my children make whatever mess they want and I just like a maid go behind them and clean it all up just for them to do it over again. I was responsible for keeping my room clean when I was a child and I think Cameron should too. Afterall, if she is in there helping out and cleaning she surely isn't going to want to mess it up tomorrow because she had to put work into making it look like this.
We got a good chunk of it done before we took a break...
we made good progress and got a lot done while Haiden was napping but then she woke up. Surprisingly she didn't mess everywhere we just cleaned.
Is that dresser tops I can actually see? :) Amazing...
And is this a desk top she can actually have space to do her homework on? Oh what are we going to do with ourselves?
And then after a bit more work we were 95% done. We still need to hang her mirror and pictures but daddy was sleeping and you should know you don't wake a sleeping bear....just kidding, he knows I love him...but seriously he sleeps through almost anything but not the pounding of a hammer on a connecting wall to our room and he had only had about 6 hours sleep from the day before so I didn't think it was a good idea.
Oh and how could I forget to mention...yes that is Haiden passed out in the middle of her floor. She said it was way too much work for her, she needed another nap.
Maybe I should take advantage of the space on her wall with chalkboard paint and write KEEP ROOM CLEAN, KEEP ROOM CLEAN x100 or CLEAN UP CLEAN UP EVERYBODY EVERYWHERE, CLEAN UP CLEAN UP CAMERON DO YOUR SHARE :) just a thought...
anyway back to the perfectly cleaned room.
She wrote me a big thank you note on her dry erase board...how sweet, made me smile and I knew she really appreciated what I had helped her do. I just realized how blurry this pic was...
Now let's hope she keeps it looking beautiful...or else...
As I sit here in this glorious red chair that I am totally in love with and look out the window, I can't say I am thrilled about the snow but I still think it's beautiful even if I didn't want it right now. I was looking forward to lovely spring weather where we could take nice long walks or spend a few hours at the park or just sit outside and enjoy the warmth, but I guess we aren't there yet so I will just have to find the beauty in snow for today. And its beauty is the peaceful silence it brings with it. I love during winter, just walking out at night when its snowing and listening to the silence and watching all the snowflakes fall.
So I took some more pictures of the tree out front the I have been photographing since it started blooming.
I do like when we get a nice white blanket of snow covering everything.
Haiden had her first powered donut today, she wasn't too sure at first. She kept licking her lips which was totally funny because she would stick her tongue out really far. But after a few licks she liked it.
And then she didn't want anymore pictures...
And on a side breakfast note, if you haven't ever tried this jelly you should because it's the best jelly I have ever had. Thanks to Catherine who got it for us.
I think I'm going to go stare out the window at the "nooooooo" (as haiden would say) with Haiden and enjoy the peacefulness and quietness of our home. Can I just say that I am sooooooo thankful and happy that Steve and I have created a peaceful, nurturing, happy environment for us and our children? More on this later but I just thought about this as I sit here writing and I am thankful for many things but for this I am really thankful.
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