Scavenger Hunt Sunday 07.13.14

Hello!  Welcome to another Scavenger Hunt Sunday post!  Not much to say today, so I'll get right to the photos ...

{sunglasses}

I had to dig into the recent archives for a sunglasses shot.  This is Nick sitting on our Virginia Beach condo's deck in the morning having his coffee.  Wearing his shades.  Looking super cool.  :)

{summer}

Don't fireworks just scream summer?  We love watching them every chance we get.

{outside}

I was outside checking this milkweed for caterpillars when I spotted this hummingbird moth.  Actually there were two, but I was only able to photograph one.  There were also about a million bees so I cut my search short.  I will look another day earlier in the morning before they are so active.

{green}

Monarch caterpillars are green(ish) when they first hatch.  Later they will develop their distinct yellow, white, and black stripes.

{healing}

Yeah, so, I had nothing for this prompt, so you get to see the rainbow we spotted this week.  Rainbows are healing, right?  :)  I mean, I feel better when I see a rainbow.

Thanks for stopping by!  Be sure to visit our host, Ashley, for more great Scavenger Hunt finds!

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Scavenger Hunt Sunday 04.20.14

Hello!  Happy Easter!  He is Risen!  

As I prepare this post on Saturday night, I'm expecting that we are having a great time with family on Easter Sunday afternoon.  We are also celebrating Nick's birthday, which was last Sunday.  He's been so excited about celebrating his birthday.  I did a post about Nick turning 11 this week if you'd like to go check it out.

{trick}

A friend of mine had a surprise birthday party for her husband last Sunday after church.  She had to trick him to get him to stay but he had a great time.  Alex was having a good time with our party hats.  :)

{selective color}

One of the flamingos from our trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo on Friday.  I actually didn't do any selective coloring on this.  This is the way I took the photo.

{close up}

A close up of one of my hyacinths.

{mirror}

I used one the big fish tanks as a mirror to get a family selfie.  Minus Doug who didn't come because he had to work.

{bright colors}

The rainbow that we were blessed to see this week was full of bright colors.  It didn't last long but it was gorgeous while it lasted.

Be sure to visit Ashley for more great Scavenger Hunt photos!
Thanks for stopping by!  Have a wonderful week!

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Scavenger Hunt Sunday 05.12.13

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!  I hope you get a chance to enjoy the day set aside just for you.  My mom and sister are coming to visit and Doug is cooking dinner.  Sounds like a good day already!

Since this week's Scavenger Hunt items are sponsored by me, I made sure to get all the prompts.  :)

{perspective}

A grasshopper's perspective of some purple flowers.

{golden}

Dogwood blossoms at golden hour.

{bloom}

We finally found some lilacs in bloom!

{dark}

The couple I photographed for their prom wore dark blue and looked fabulous!

{local}

I noticed this rainbow in the sky when I got out of my car at a local church.

I can't wait to see what you came up with!  Be sure to visit our lovely hostess, Ashley, for more great Scavenger Hunt finds!

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Week 30 in Pictures

We're home!!!!  Alex (and I) got released from the hospital on Wednesday.  We had to wait until Doug got off work to come get us, so we still spent the better part of the day at the hospital, but most of it, Alex wasn't hooked up to anything.  So we had lots of fun playing.  He was actually a little disappointed when Doug showed up because the hospital was hosting a fun Luau starting at 6:00 and Doug got there at 5:40.  Alex wanted to stay for the party, but we were anxious to get home.


He got his PICC line out in the morning, which was traumatic, as expected.  Although the IV nurse was really great.  She let Alex do most of the work which made it easier on him.  He felt more in control.  Removing all the adhesive is what freaks him out the most.  But she let him do almost all of it.  And then he didn't even feel the line being taken out.

We are so glad to be home.  Alex is doing great.  Eating and playing and fighting with his brother and sister.  Just like we never left.  :)   We're trying to get back to normal now.  I'm still trying to get caught up on sleep.  I told the kids to give me a week to sleep in in the mornings and then I should be okay.  We'll see.  :)  I managed to sneak in a chiropractic adjustment on Friday.  Man, did I need that after sleeping on a couch all that time.

Anyway, I am excited to be home and have the opportunity to photograph non-hospital stuff.  Here's what last week looked like ...

{Sunday}

Alex and I really enjoyed spending time in the hospital's healing garden.  We went there quite frequently ... when he felt up to it.

{Monday}

Alex was allowed to have clear liquids today!   He was so excited to have apple juice and a popsicle.  I tortured him by making him wait for the popsicle while I photographed it.  :)  Not the greatest photo but I was quite limited in my set up capabilities.

{Tuesday}

Jello for breakfast (and lunch)!  Must be more fun to eat it with your fingers.  He was watching TV and doing his best to ignore me taking his picture.  :)  Poor guy's cheek is all broken out where the adhesive was holding the NG tube in.  The other side didn't do that the first time we were in the hospital, so I don't know why it happened this time.  It is clearing up now though.

{Wednesday}

Shiloh, one of the therapy dogs that visits the hospital, stopped to see us before we went home.  He's such a handsome dog!

{Thursday}

Lots of flowers blooming at home including these liatris and sunflowers.

{Friday}

After so much hot, dry weather, we have been getting quite a bit of rain lately.  At dinnertime we noticed a rainbow in the sky and decided to try to find the end of it - leaving dinner sitting on the table.  While we didn't find the end, we did find this nice clearing where I could photograph the double rainbow without the usual trees in the way.

{Saturday}

I finally got to spend some time enjoying the hummingbirds that visit my feeder.

     


My favorite photo from July ...

If you recall, we got to watch the fireworks from our hospital room window ... one of the bright spots from our stay there.

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Scavenger Hunt Sunday

After missing last week due to the fact that being in the hospital with Alex made it nearly impossible to find the prompts ... at least that's the excuse I'm sticking to :) ... I'm back this week.  We got released from the hospital on Wednesday, after spending 25 days there.  He is doing great and we are so thankful to be home!

This week's items are Paint, Green, Eyelashes, Shapes, and Clouds.

{paint}In honor of the Olympics, we had a little fun with paints.  Go USA!
{green}Green is one of the colors in these rainbows which we were so excited to see this week.  We even went in search of the end of the rainbow.  We didn't find it but we had fun trying.
{eyelashes}Why is it that little boys seem to get the longest eyelashes?  Totally unfair!
{shapes}One of the many crafts we did at the hospital was fuse beads.  Alex made a circle and I made a butterfly.
{clouds}Sunsets always seem prettier when there are clouds in the sky.
That's it for me.  Be sure to head over to Ashley's for more great Scavenger Hunt photos!  Have a great week!

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Week 19 in Pictures

Hello there!  I took an unexpected and unintentional week away from blogging.  I hadn't planned to take time off, it just sort of happened that way.  I was able to get several things accomplished which makes me feel good.  I hate it when things start to pile up around here.

We had lots of activity going on here last week also.  Our kitchen counter top was installed, Doug got new tires on my van, our dining room set came in so we picked it up, and Doug sold his truck.  And that all happened just on Friday!  

Last week I also attended a Tea and a Mother/Daughter luncheon.  I helped a friend with a crafty project, which put me in the mood to dig out my scrapbook stuff and do some scrapping (didn't actually happen though).  Alex went on his first field trip without me (my name didn't get picked in the drawing) and had a really good time.  And I had a photo shoot postponed twice - once because of weather and once because the little boy wasn't feeling well.  :(  We are rescheduled for this week, so here's hoping!

This week will also be pretty busy as we are preparing for our ladies' luncheon coming up this Saturday.  It is going to be fun!  I'm so looking forward to it!  Anyway, on to last week's pictures ...

{Sunday}

I had bought these hydrangeas a few days before and just got around to photographing them.

{Monday}

Rainy day.  So I took advantage and photographed some rain drops.  I love that you can see my purple Lupine flowers in the reflection.  Oh, and we saw a double rainbow today, but I didn't have my camera with me to capture it.  Darn!  I knew I should have grabbed it before we left the house.  :)

{Tuesday}

Alex had been wiggling and wiggling a bottom tooth all morning and it looked really ready to come out.  But he wanted to wait until he was at school to pull it out because the kids get this sweet little treasure box from the nurse when they lose a tooth at school.  Gotta love it when they know what they want and make it happen.  :)

{Wednesday}

Two double rainbows in one week!  Amazing!  The outer one is very faint, but it is definitely there.  And I was glad to have my camera on me this time.

{Thursday}

The reflector set I ordered came today so Keira helped me try it out.  I really need practice with indoor portraits.

{Friday}

As I said, Friday was a crazy, busy day.  The kids didn't have school, which I didn't realize when I scheduled the counter top installation.  It was all good though.  They stayed out of the way of the counter top guys.  And shortly after Doug sold his truck, the store where we ordered our dining room table and chairs from called to tell us they were in.  Thankfully we were able to get one more use out of the truck and go pick the set up.

{Saturday}

Keira and I spent the morning/early afternoon at my mother-in-law's Mother-Daughter banquet.  Then Doug and the boys wanted to go fishing in the evening since Doug got his license today.  I didn't get my license yet, so all I did was take pictures.  Doug caught all the fish, much to Nick's dismay.  Oh, and three Great Blue Herons flew over our heads before I had my camera out and ready.  :(

     

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Week 4 in Pictures

Almost the end of January and so far so good on my third year of Project 365/366.  Some days are still tougher than others, but I managed again this week.  Let's take a look, shall we?

{Sunday - Let It Snow/Winter for Be Inspired}

If you recall, last week's pictures showed me trying to photograph all "four" of my kids posing for the camera, which doesn't usually work out so well.  Capturing them in action does though.  And I think I like it better.  :)  We asked our neighbors if we could sled on their hill for a change of scenery.  They said of course and watched us the whole time (you can see Mr. R. in the window).  I guess we were pretty entertaining.  In this photo, Keira and Nick were attempting a train and it wasn't working out so well.  Alex was having no part of it, while Honey was trying to get in on the fun.  (Although she won't get on a sled, she will run down beside you and bite at your feet).

{Monday}

This winter has brought with it some crazy weather.  Today it warmed up and rained a good part of the day, melting most of the snow.  :(  But we were blessed with this double rainbow.  In January!!!  The outer one is a little harder to see, but it is definitely there.

  

{Tuesday}

While grocery shopping, I saw these little primrose plants for 99 cents.  This yellow one was so cheery looking.  I thought it would brighten up the sometimes dreary days winter brings.

{Wednesday - self portrait for My 3 Boybarians Project 52}

So, yeah, I had an idea in my brain to capture myself while exercising.  I set up my camera and my 50mm lens (which I need to manually focus) on my tripod and got busy.  But I was unable to get a focused shot after many, many attempts.  Mental note - it is hard to get the focus correct when there is no one there to focus on.  :)  So anyway, you get an out-of-focus shot of me exercising to Just Dance on the Wii.

{Thursday - Close for Project 366 Rewind}

Woke up to icy rain, so Alex and I decided to go for a nature walk.  (I know, WHAT?!?!  Why would you go for a walk in the rain?!?!)  :)  My ulterior motive was to capture some icy photos ... I was able to get a few before the ice melted.  These little icicles were hanging on the side of my neighbor's tractor.

{Friday}

Finally got around to setting up my light box for Ashley's and Branson's Tutorial Tuesday.  So I spent some time playing.  I think the hardest part was figuring out what to photograph.  :)

{Saturday}

Doug took Alex to get a new car for his train (you can see another photo in my Scavenger Hunt set).  He decided on a Polar Express stock car to go with his Polar Express train.  The train is now set up again in his bedroom.  We seem to set it up for a couple weeks, then get tired of it and put it away.  Then get it back out again a month or so later, etc. etc.  Anyway, he wanted me to take some pictures of his new train car so ...  :)


A kitchen update for those who are interested ... Doug and I went in on Wednesday to get the cabinets ordered only to find out that we needed to have an installer come out and confirm the measurements before we could order.  He was here on Saturday morning (Doug was working on Thursday and Friday) and was a great guy to talk to.  He gave us a few suggestions and ideas.  And I got to look through his book of before/after pictures and ooh and aah over the beautiful kitchens.  :) 


Shortly after he left (and after the trip to the hobby shop for Alex's train car), Doug moved the refrigerator to the dining room and started ripping out cabinets.  Today he took down the ceilings.  Yes, ceilings ... as in more than one.  Apparently when the previous owners wanted to update the ceiling, they just put a new one over top of the old one.  There were four ceilings total in our kitchen.  Each one was uglier than the last.  :)  Next week you'll get to see one of the interesting objects he found in the ceiling.


Gosh, don'tcha hate teasers like that?  :)


So we are adjusting to where everything is now.  Almost nothing is where it should be.  Which is sometimes frustrating.  But it is only temporary.  Hopefully we'll go in today to order the cabinets and get them going.  In the meantime, Doug has lots of work to do to keep him busy.  Floor, walls, ceiling, wiring, plumbing.  It's a good thing he knows how to do all that!


Have a great week!

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