usually the monkey bars.....

i have always had a focusing {non-camera, more like a.d.d.} problem. something i really didn't know or understand until i was an adult in my thirties and then didn't really acknowledge until i was in my forties. i now know that in my case,  almost always without my permission, sneaky little randomness grabs the hand of usually clueless focus and forces her to run around on the playground in my mind with her. together, they usually choose the monkey bars.

i would be lying if i said winter wasn't kicking my butt, although my hubby said last night that he can't believe how well i've made it through this season. hello wool. i think you've pulled yourself over my hubby's eyes. snort.

i saw my first robin this past weekend. this isn't the one i saw. this is one from florida last year. ohhh, florida...stop calling my name. okay, now onto the randomness that made me start this post in the first place.

1. if you burn a scented candle in your home, please know that for some people {like myself} it can actually make them nauseous. or trigger a migraine. chances are, especially if you're trying to cover up a smell, the original smell is much more pleasant than the scented candle.

2. i love the song lyrics, "i belong to you, you belong to me, you're my sweetheart."

3. what are your favorite iphone apps?

4. did i ever tell you about using snapsort for comparing cameras, especially if you're shopping for one? look up in the left hand corner, where it says "compare." i think you'll like it.

5. was the TV coverage for the new pope, too much or just right? personally, i got a little tired of it and no, don't send me any hate mail.

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that's all for now. baby girl millie has come over to play with her grandma.

"you're in my heart.....

you're in my soul"

thank you rod stewart

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well, it's time that i introduce to you my newest love. this is millie. she's my grand-daughter....well, grand-dog if you want to be technical, and i am beyond smitten. she's eight weeks old and belongs to our son and if you think i'm smitten, well i wish you could see him. he's weak in his knees, now that she owns his heart.

she's not a black lab, but she is part lab. she's also part boxer and miniature dachshund. ummm, yeah....try to figure that one out. 

here, i'll tell you. her mommy is a boxador {google it} and her daddy, well he's the  miniature dachshund. i'm baffled as to how they pulled off their little rendezvous, but that doesn't really matter since this adorable and precious fur baby was the end result....well, her and her five siblings.

admit it. you're kind of in love now, too, aren't you?

these photos were all taken on my iphone, which is fantastic because then i can carry her with me all day long and share here with everyone i see. see, i told you i was crazy about her. OH, and the best new iphone app for photo editing...pictapgo...you're welcome.

no humdrum life.....

i cut this out from a magazine. i like it. it makes me think.

what are you thinking about this weekend?

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cloning 101-contain your excitement.....

hey everyone...as promised, 

a quick cloning video using picmonkey

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a. i tried to embed the video on this page with blogger and it failed. so instead, i uploaded it to my youtube account and i think it will show up below {oh technology is great when it works} but, if all else fails, try going here.

b. this is my first screen recording...bear with me.

c. don't laugh

d. this has nothing to do with my video and everything to do with one of the little things keeping me sane this winter...my daughter, the girls she nannies for and their little friend.

e. thanks for asking me to share my cloning technique with you. it's good to feel needed. here's to a beautiful and happy weekend no matter what you do, where you are or who you spend it with.

orange you glad.....

i bought some cuties to eat and ended up playing with them instead. somehow when you're a photographer, "don't play with your food" no longer seems to make any sense whatsoever.

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right now, my hubby is fifty and our daughter is twenty five. according to them, as i have yet to do the math, there will never be another time when she will be exactly half his age. for example, next year she'll be twenty six and he'll be fifty one {not half} and when she's thirty, he'll be fifty five {still not half}....see where i'm going with this? i think they're right.

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when we were in the hospital with our son two weeks ago, the nurses used purell as easily and as often as they were breathing. i mean constantly. so we followed their lead and used it constantly, too. heck, i wouldn't even touch the thermostat in his room without cleaning up afterwards. now when i'm out, touching a door, a shopping cart handle, well, basically anything...i've become a bigger germ-a-phobe than i ever used to be. are you a germ-a-phobe, especially this time of year?

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guess what? i think i have it all figured out...how to give you a real life video of me doing something. well, wait. that sounded kind of dirty didn't it? what i mean, is that some of you asked me to show you how to clone in picmonkey, instead of talking about it, and by george i think i've got it. so, if all goes well, there will be a cloning video on friday. keep your excitement under control....snort.

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oh, one last thing...this will make you smile.

a view from my window.....

well, my car window that is.

we went for a little drive on saturday. we're working on a new project {excited} and felt we needed to get "out of dodge" for awhile in hopes of finding something new to inspire us. the fresh air, the change of scenery, a restaurant with the most delicious chicken rolls {something we'd never had before} and just simply being with each other {for eight and a half hours, while talking about what our future holds} added up to the most perfect day.

the sun warmed and blinded us all day long, making us take off our coats in the car and move our visors up, down and every other way we possibly could to prevent our faces and retinas from burning. eventually we gave up, laughed at ourselves, and decided there just wasn't anyway we could possibly complain about the brilliant sun on a winter day in wisconsin. 

today's forecast...snow is on its way. by tomorrow night, it looks like the hubby will be snow blowing about another foot of the same wet and heavy snow we just had last week. come on mother nature, it's march. we're done. 

okay fine, you win. you're arriving no matter what {uncle}....so could you at least make sure the sun plans on traveling with you again this time and then could you promise us you're tired and not coming back until next winter....pretty please?

side note:these were all taken while we were on the highway going seventy miles an hour. i like the challenge of shooting from the passenger seat and then having to crop out cars, signs, fences, the rear view mirror and telephone poles when i get home. yep, i'm a bit odd that way.

letting honesty pour out of me.....oh, and hello march

i have words and thoughts running around in my mind today. not just in circles, but instead like they've been told they need to participate in a marathon. usually when this happens, i grab a notebook and start writing, but today i'm not doing that. instead i'm just going to sit with them here in my lap and share some of them here, openly and honestly in the only way i know how.

the long winter seems to have affected many of us and i thank you for your honesty in the last set of comments. so why has 2012 followed so many of us into 2013 and why have we let it happen? maybe it's our own fault, i don't know. what i do know is that personally, i am partially to blame.

you see, fear is an ugly, ugly poison and i have learned that fear and love can't live together. i've also just recently heard that fear and faith can't live together either. for so many reasons, fear had its way with me...especially last year. some of it was real fear. unfortunately, most of it was made up fear. either way, when it first showed up, like a sun glass wearing spy dancing around quiet corners, i could control it, but then late in the summer, it took me as its prisoner. it was uglier than anything i had ever seen before. it was mean, unforgiving and painful. simply put, it was brutal. 

i knew it was up to me to get rid of it and that i had the power to do so, but somehow, as cruel as it was, i let it stay. not only did it stay, it unpacked its suitcases and threw them away with plans on never leaving. on any given day, it didn't matter what i did, it joined me. even on days when i kicked it around, screamed, "go away, i hate you," and tried my best to ignore it, it sheepishly smiled at me and then lunged at and attacked my soul.

then one day earlier this month, catching us both completely off guard, the fear living with me couldn't get out of here fast enough. it spun out of control with hurricane like force winds, leaving crumbling, yet no longer questioning emotions in its path and me praying with everything i had, that this was real. that it was truly gone.

with fear officially having "left the building," all the trust, faith, love, self love, self esteem, hope, joy, patience and beliefs that had lived in every tiny crevice of my being for the past 48 years, easily and quickly moved right back in. in fact they have taken over, running up and down the hallways of my soul with ballet like precision, laughing and throwing confetti into the air and i couldn't be happier.

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{if i didn't take the time here to thank the most incredible man, my husband, for his love and support and understanding, especially when i was impossible to understand, well, i'd be an idiot. i have, in its most raw and vulnerable spaces, learned the true meanings of "deep to the bone, you are literally my heart and i am your heart" love and honesty...all because of him.}

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EVERYTHING YOU WANT IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF FEAR. george addair

YOUR MISSION::BE SO BUSY LOVING YOUR LIFE THAT YOU HAVE NO TIME FOR HATE, REGRET OR FEAR. unknown