This past week...

We visited the San Gabriel Mission with a cousin.

I finished with some new decorating things around the house.  Including new paint for one wall, the completion of my blanket, and some new photos up for another wall.

We visited the Richard Nixon Library and Museum.

We watched/played the best kind of football...dads/sons/daughters on Thanksgiving morning.

We witnessed a life sized game of Jenga.

We decided to turn off the TV until Christmas.

We wandered through nature with friends.

We enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving meal not once or twice, but three times with family.

We started putting up the Christmas decorations.

We hit up a cool local craft fair.

Dang!  It was a good week.  Not looking forward to the early wake up and homework of tomorrow.  But we are all so thankful for a  pretty amazing week!

Oh!  And guess what?  Shane's team made the big deal playoffs.  First game tomorrow night, and they'll keep going until someone says stop. :)  Looking forward to some good games ahead!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

Randomness

Dang.  They are so stinkin' cute!

Just thinking

I was at Lowe's yesterday and as I was waiting for some paint to get mixed (I did it...I went orange for one of my walls...still trying to decide if I completely love it...okay, I digress) I went walking around.  I was looking for some little pots for indoor plants.  I found these little pots and I grabbed them up quick.  See...they are made out of recycled candy wrappers.  I loved the size of the little pots, but I really loved that they were made of reused items.  But then I started thinking, are they really reused???  I can so picture a little factory somewhere making these little wrappers, just to make these pots and other items.  I mean are there people really going through trash in hopes that just maybe they'd find a wrapper or two??  So to be fair, maybe that is what is happening, and that doesn't make me feel good, but I really just can't see it.  So then I felt like it probably made no difference to buy these or any other pot that was displayed.  Anyway, like I said, just thinking.

Ummm, on a totally different note....
I went to a swap meet today.  A really HUGE swap meet.  It was fun.  But I was totally expecting to find THE find.  The perfect little old thing I didn't know I needed or wanted.  No such luck.  I DID see a special little treasure though.  One that if it were a few years ago, I would have snatched it up super quick. I didn't today. But I'm still thinking about it!

It was the lunch box I had as a wee little one.  I love it.  It just makes me happy and smile.  So at the time I was thinking, what in the world would I use it for now?  And now in hindsight, I think I totally would have used it.  Oh well...I took some pics of it.  :)  The pics make me smile too.

Can someone please explain myself to me

i've got some large honkin' feet
um yah.  size 10.
now, they haven't always been this big
for many years i was rockin' a size 9
two babies later....size 10 it is
seriously what is up with that...babies????
why would my feet grow after babies?

anyways....tonight, David Crowder Band
me, my family and friends went to see the David Crowder Band
if you've never hear of them, look 'em up
seriously...go do that now
They are awesome
a w e s o m e
I had never seen that man before tonight
love love his quirky style
love his voice and songs
so super good

sooo......

my foot's a size 10
for some reason, there's times i'll buy a 9 1/2
s q u e e z e  my size 10 foot in a 9 1/2
makes me feel like my feet look a little less.....well, big I guess

all that jumping around tonight
loving me some david crowder
in my size 9 1/2 shoes

And, well ...my feet hurt

Ten on Ten :: November

Ten on Ten Photo Project:  Take a photo every hour for ten consecutive hours on the tenth of each month. Document a day of your life and find beauty among the ordinary moments.

::8 ish   Morning drop off.  Why are we not walking?!?

::9 ish   Met a friend for a good walk.  For us AND the doggies.

::9 ish   A little cheat.  Still 9ish...on our walk.  This is to replace the 4pm photo that isn't there.  ;)

::10 ish   An 'after walk' treat

::11ish    The coffee is done and capped & still chattin' away!

::12 ish   Look at her eyes!  I totally think she's cursing at me!!

::1 pm   Finally getting clean!

::2 ish   Homework time!

::3 ish   Gave her a little haircut.  Now she's saying...uh huh, I'm hot!

::5 ish   Haha.  Dinner of champions!

Mondays

Typically, weekends around here are pretty full.  We've got sports to watch, church activities to attend, errands to run, sometimes people to see, and other times new things to explore.   The usual weekend will come to end Sunday eve with some slow-paced family time at home.  And I like our weekends, I love doing all of it.

Monday morning rolls in and it's a quick get up and get ready.  Mike goes off to work, I make sure the kiddos are fed and are ready for their first day of the week back to school.  And then they're off to school.  But then...I walk back into the house and everybody's gone.  The house is quiet.  It's really quiet.   

It's really, really quiet.  *sly grin*  You see Monday is my no commitment day.  It's been a day for me to do some grocery shopping if needed, some cleaning, homework or catch up with whatever.  I get to fill in the blank on Mondays.  And on a day like today, due to the overcast morning after an evening of rain...I'm straight out giddy.  After throwing in a load of laundry, I've already grabbed my camera and taken some photos including my yummy hot chai and some raindrops on roses out back (I can't type that without singing.... these are a few of my favorite things.  So now do I have YOU singing it?? ;).   And now....as Penny sits next to me (because she likes to follow me into every room I go into) I'm catching myself regularly sighing in peace as I sip my chai and type this to you.  

I super love my family, and if I had to choose to be alone or be with them, I'd totally choose to be with them.  But sometimes being home in a quiet house is super nice too.  

Daydreaming

So I've been quickly slipping down a photography slope since about May....maybe April, when I got my new camera.  I'll call it my photography adventure!  Since the beginning of this adventure, I've really wanted to use my camera to the fullest and to do that I have to get off AUTO.  Trying, but it's going slower than I'd like.  I'm reading what I can, looking online too.  I'm finding that it's mostly trial and error.  But a lot of times I just don't want to err, so I flip the switch back to AUTO.  Hmmmph.

Along with experimenting with my camera I've learned that a lot of fabulous pictures out there are Photoshopped.  Post processing is what the term is.  A little sharpened here, a little extra contrast there.  But then there's these things called actions and textures too!  Whew!...huge learning curve.  Really don't even know where to begin.  Hmmmph.

Today I'm doing a little daydreaming that I have my own personal mentor who would just LOVE to teach me all I could ever want to know about camera settings and Photoshop.  And she'd want to do that for free!  Just because she loves teaching her fabulous gift to others.  Wouldn't that be the coolest?!

Hmmmm.  I think maybe I'll stay here in make believe land for the night.  I can throw some other dreams in there too....personal trainer, chef, maid, etc.  I'm sure I can check back into reality tomorrow.

Today...

I treated myself and did this...

Read while my toes got all pretty

Then treated my kiddos with this...

Frozen Hot Chocolates all the way from NYC

But then my girl went and got sick and did this...