Wordless Wednesday - Sunrise

Day 25

Taken w/ a Nikon D40 with a 55-200mm zoom, straight out of the camera - added a frame.

hanging on

Day 16

This is the last leaf that was on our tree... it's officially naked as of today. When I took this picture the sun was blaring down on this tiny little leaf just hanging on for dear life after the aftermath of hurricane/tropical storm/tropical depression Ida ripped through here dumping 6-8 inches of rain in 4 days and lots of gusty winds. It was almost like the little leaf just needed to be noticed! Our tree wasn't bare until that storm hit. It funny to look up and see this one lonely leaf hanging tight after that storm. Such is the irony of life, and the storms we weather - sometimes we CAN just "hang on" - can't we ;-).

I'm thankful for most of the storms in my life, even though at the time I'm not very thankful. The aftermath of each circumstance and situation seems to build me. It's defiantly a crossroads with every storm, to decide which road to take. How to hang on, and survive without being beat down by the storms... that has become more important then stepping into the storms path. My emotional survival depends 100% on my attitude, my strength, and my will to see a positive outcome. This is a lesson that is REALLY hard to learn. Much much easier said then done, but I'm learning day by day ;-).

leftovers

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow. ~Melody Beattie

Day 15

lots of leftover mashed potatoes and devilled eggs...

leftover candid sweet potatoes....
leftover turkey, dressing, corn, green beans, gravy, potato salad, and even dessert....

I'm thankful for the leftover food (yummy!!)...

I'm also thankful for the leftovers of life. Sometimes life throws us alot all at once, and we handle what we can right then. What's "leftover" is usually bits and pieces to sort out, and I'm thankful for the many moments in my life over the past year where I've felt like my plate was too full and then found out that the leftovers were just bitter sweet in the end... Some days, I forget how precious life really is. Thanksgiving should really be EVERY day. (not so much the food - I'd be super huge and unhealthy...) Maybe that makes sense, but probably not. ;-)

giving thanks, early

Day 14

We have big J's brother in from Texas visiting, so we're having Thanksgiving early with him. Today will be full of yummy smells in the house, like candid yams, turkey baking, cinnamon boiling in water to smell up the house for the season. We're also making mashed potatoes, devilled eggs, cranberry sauce, oreo pie, and banana pudding. My mother in law is making her absolutely yummy dressing, and they're bringing over green beans, corn, and gravy.

It's destined to be a yummy day!!! I'm so thankful today to have our family to celebrate with.

Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow.

~Edward Sandford Martin

sunset

Day 13

Tonight while I was driving to pick up big E from his school club meeting, I was so thankful to see the gorgeous sunset. I pulled over to take photos. I took several, but I think this may be the better of them. I'm so thankful for such a beautiful ending to several days of rain!

The sky looked like beautiful lava pouring in all around me...

this photo is un-edited (minus the frame)

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colors

Day 12

I'm grateful for being able to SEE! I love looking at the vibrant colors of fall. This photo is straight out of the camera and I added a frame.

This tree REALLY is THIS red!! I drive past it daily.

quackers...

Day 10

It's supposed to rain today. Alot. However, over the weekend we had AMAZING weather. We went to one of our favorite parks with a couple of packs of crackers and fed the ducks. The scenery is always so peaceful and calming. We went around 430pm and the sun was beginning to set as we were leaving.

We finally found the ducks, and we fed them "quackers"... HA.

Again, not one of my most focused photos... I'm working on that.

autumn colors

Day 5

I'm thankful for the colors of fall. They lift my spirits!

a little behind...

rewind to Halloween....

we carved a pumpkin, and I took photos of it with our point and shoot and I didn't think it was really possible to screw up a photo with a point and shoot camera, but guess what - I did!! I had the flash off. DUH. So, imagine a cleverly crafted pumpkin - by my husband who is a graphic artist shameless promotion and there you have it....

I didn't take ANY photos of little J!! I'm winning bigtime on this holiday so far, eh? Little J dressed as Robin (from Batman/Robin) and he was cute, of course ;-). Big J took this one with his cellphone while little J was playing Lego Indiana Jones before we left.

Here's the only two photos I took of Big E. He dressed as a 'slayer' and it really turned out to look alot like Neo from The Matrix. See the blueish sky in the background??? That quickly turned to crap and rain.

We headed to Union Street around 615pm (dark)- a big deal place to trick-or-treat in our area where they decorate the houses BIGTIME! Some houses even have a haunted theme, like "Nightmare on Union Street". This house had everyone stand in line to go up to the front door to get candy and the entire front yard is a makeshift cemetery and spooky place with dry ice and a wood shed where a guy comes out and teases you with a fake chainsaw. The chainsaw I could have done w/o, but otherwise, it was fun. I expected little J to get scared, but he only complained about the loudness.

After about 5 houses there, it started pouring on us. We decided to pack it up and come back to our n'hood and walk with an umbrella. Big E and the hubs did that while little J and I greeted a little over 50 guests at our door. Little J enjoyed seeing all the kids dressed up and hugged most of the kids his age before they left. I had purchased a bag of 50 pencils and each trick-or-treater got 1. So I ran out... that's how I know it was over 50. I'd say around 70! It was alot!! We emptied out our candy supply and shut the lights off at 930pm.

The rain was here and there, but never steady enough to ruin the night for the kiddo's. Big E came home with a heavy bag of candy, just from going to about 15-20 houses on our street. So, even though it rained, it was still fun for the kids.

Did I mention that Halloween is big J's birthday??? So, on top of all of that, we met papaw for lunch, and celebrated big J's birthday! We had white chocolate raspberry cheesecake + a balloon + cards, and a gift... busy day on Halloween!

spider webs

Woke up this morning and noticed fuzzy spots all over our back yard. I went out to see what they were and found that they were tiny palm size spider webs. First, that's just weird on Halloween, and second - how can I get rid of the critters that are making them? I'm not really a spider fan (was bit by a black widow years ago - eek)...... Here's just one of several, I'd say around 100, tiny little webs.

This one is not in focus very well...I'm really trying to practice using manual zoom on my camera lens, and all manual settings.... I'll have to go try harder!! Spider webs are hard to capture!

more from the pumpkin patch....

~click images to make larger~

Not exactly sure what big E was doing here... looks surprised that little J has another punkin!
Daddy's helping little J pick out a good one...
Little J has his eye on the prize punkin!

Punkins

"There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October."

- Nathaniel Hawthorne

making the most of today...

So, instead of sitting around and feeling like crap - I wanted to go go go today! We started our day off with a visit to a nearby park where the boys hung out on three different playground areas, watched some people play tennis and little J made friends with a very outgoing little boy named Nate. Big E hung out under the trees where acorns were falling everywhere, he loves hunting for acorns...

Little J's hair was hilarious each time he came down the slide.... full of static and energy - just like him!

After the park, we grabbed lunch and then little J took a long nap. Big E and I headed out to get some fall clothes for both boys, and have daddy's car washed - it was no longer a white Honda - I'd call the color "filth" ...

After naptime, we decided to take a drive up to the airport overlook - the weather couldn't have been more perfect today and we just couldn't sit home and be indoors while this gorgeous day was going on outside...
On our way home we noticed the moon - it was gigantic and full and gorgeous. My nighttime photography skills blow arse for the most part, so this is the best out of many pictures I took with the zoom lens. Gotta practice more on that one... someday.

Day Out with Thomas - 2009

This is our 3rd time going to see Thomas the Tank Engine at the NC Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC. We took big E when he was little, and we went last year with both boys, so this is the 2nd time for little J! He had a blast!! Some of the photos he looks SO serious....

Here's a few from our trip. We had beautiful weather, and spent the entire morning there.

wacky week wrap-up

There's been alot of fluff postin lately... so here's my cliff notes version of the week at our house:

• Big J threw his back out... makes him sound old. Funny thing is he doesn't even know what he did for it to happen. Just stepped a certain way then off to the doctor he went because he could barely move.



• Big E found himself suspended from school for one day, and out of our good graces. I'm not posting all about my kids being perfect angels on here - so there, my kid made SAD choices and as a result, suspended. The deed was dirty, and he's been in serious denial about it. I'm not going to disrespect his privacy totally - so the deed will not be blogged. However, instead of letting him have his suspension day at home - we chose to have him go to an alternative school where part of the day was spent with a life skills/anger management course that was/is intended to discourage this type of deed. We hope it helped. It was an experience for sure! Live and learn, right?

• I went to the doc for a follow up visit, found out more about my "abnormal labwork" and got referred to a rheumatologist because my ANA titer rate was 1:640 and should be 1:40 or less. I'll post more about that too... later. This isn't all brand new to me, but the reality of it is settling in because my problems are internal right now. They've scheduled a hyda scan to determine if I have a diseased gall bladder, ultrasound shows no stones, but thats only one test they do, and after that they'll know what direction to go in - I hope.

• Little J has been chilling out at home alot, homeschool has been really play and learn all week this week and last week - and I've not been camera savvy to take photos, and I've had no real lesson plans this past week because of all these doctors appointments. Next week I hope to be back on track. We have been using Lego's in all sorts of ways to teach and play. Sorting, shapes, counting, building, creating etc. We have created a Lego lovin kid for sure!!

• We went to the pet store with little J one day this week and bought a Crowntail Betta fish that looks just like THIS ONE. I have named him poopface.... well, because that fish poops alot - AND because I have a sick and immature sense of humor I suppose. Not sure what he'll name that fish. At the petstore we had fun looking and learning names of all of the different kinds of fish, and other pets they had! Snakes, lizards, hamsters, cats, etc.

• The highlight of the week for little J was the Day out with Thomas. I'll post all about that in a separate entry...

• One of my neice's is having a birthday Sunday, as is our 7 year wedding anniversary - and next week big E turns ELEVEN and on that same day that he turns ELEVEN, my step-mom turns another year older (ladies never tell - right)!! Then the hubs has a birthday ON Halloween! Lots of celebrations in October...

Fall Picture Day

We usually don't buy the school pictures, generally because they make you pay before you ever get to see them. Which I think is lame. However, the picture DOES go in the yearbook so looking as cool as possible was the goal today. We did buy the cheapest package for once this year....

This is a picture I took in our dining room right after the hair was finished being spiked and gelled and colored.... What matters most, is that our 6th grader was feelin pretty good about himself for pictures today!!

(yes, his eyes really are that blue... both of my boys and those blue eyes. Lady killers.)

first sign of fall

Even though "fall" won't officially be here until September 22 this year, I'm already starting to see some changes in colors on the trees. We were at our favorite playground over the weekend and kept running across these bright red glossy leaves.

I'm trying to learn how to use natural lighting better and shooting in full manual on the camera, but I haven't had a whole lot of time to play around as I would like too. This is the only picture out of about 40 that I really liked....

It captures what I love about fall, the warmth of the sunshine against the rustic colors.