and so it goes.....

i apologize for being quiet, but summer does that to me and since i love summer, i'm not complaining, nor will i hold any grudges. i love the fact that balmy breezes and the warmth of the sun wrap me up and leave me somewhat powerless.

i'm still loving my days volunteering at the food pantry and feel that its changed me. seeing people with basically nothing appreciate such tiny things and feeling the warmth in their handshakes when they introduce themselves to me is such a gift.

i live for the weekends when my hubby is home and the kids are here and we just eat and laugh.

oh, i've also kind of been living for mike's hard lemonade, too.

happy weekend everyone. i hope you know how much i love it when you come here to see me.

my girl with her girls.....

our daughter has been a nanny for "her girls" for almost three years now and i can't get enough of watching her parent them. all i know, without question, is that she is going to be the best mom ever.

the day i shot these photos, they were playing at the splash park with some friends and neither of the girls were very wowed by the idea of "splashing water," but with lots of help and encouragement, they finally got wet. i have more photos over here if you're bored or if you really want to see all the fun they had.

i hope your weekend is filled with everything you want and that you're surrounded by those you love. oh heck, let's throw in the perfect amount of warmth and sunshine, too....hello mother nature...did you hear me?

do do do.....

{more splash photos to come when the outdoors force me to stay in and edit photos. 

hopefully that won't be until like november. hey, a girl can dream}

oh shoot.....

 

it was a very happy father's day

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our daughter has a new found "i'll try anything once and kill it" attitude. so we combined that with our son's laid back, patient and funnier than all get out spirit, guns, my precious hubby who just happens to be their amazing father, sporting clays and years of shooting experience and had a perfect day that will never be forgotten.

by default.....

i'll admit it, i live cautiously.

i mean it's not like i live in a cave and don't do anything, but i over think things. when one over thinks things, not as many things happen since over thinking often tends to be wrapped in a layer of fear. sometimes, darn it,  it's costco sized fear in the form of a straight jacket. okay, i'm not that bad, but no one has ever said my name and used adventurous along with it.

it's not like i'm a chicken. i rode in a hot air balloon over napa valley twenty years ago and i think i slept once without any sheets covering me, but overall, being cautious seems to follow me around like a misplaced duckling looking for it's mama. peep, peep, peep.

anyhow, i'm ready. i want to throw caution to the wind. at least some of it.

so adventure, here i come and i don't mean shopping in a new grocery store where i don't know where anything is. i mean something new, different, big and slightly scary.

bring it on.

the quiet side.....

a lot of bloggers are heading to the "quiet side" during the summer months. have you noticed? i like that they do that. that they take a break. that summer means soaking in the present moments and selfishly keeping them, wishing on dandelions, falling asleep to the sound of bullfrogs, photos of bugs and bare legs and eating chocolate for breakfast. oh wait, maybe the chocolate/breakfast combo is just me. snort.

anyhow, i'm going to be one of them.

i won't disappear completely, but it will be quieter around here. i'll still share some of my photos with quotes i fall in love with and there will be occasional updates of what is or isn't going on around here, but overall i think you'll feel and hear the silence.

with that said, i'm a talker and i love anything visual, so we'll see who wins...summer, blogging or hopefully just the perfect combination of both.

why is the g silent?.....

i asked for summer and she came dancing in the other day and i couldn't be happier, but her beautiful presence means air conditioning. i'm not a fan of air conditioning. instead, i like open windows, breezes and ceiling fans...but i've learned that if i'm going to live with the man i love in such a way that neither of us kills each other, once it reaches 80 degrees, the cool air must blow.

we went on another hike late yesterday afternoon. why is it that no matter how much bug spray you have on and no matter how skilled you are with your gnat swatting ninja moves, there will be one gnat that will follow you for your entire hike, flying in and out of both of your ears, forcing you go bat shit crazy and making you wonder what you're doing in the woods in the first place? why? oh, and why is gnat spelled with a silent g? 

there wasn't any time for camera loving yesterday, so my nature photos are from my pond walk last week. my favorite thing to do while walking around the pond is finding dappled light. dappled, hmmm...it's a funny but interesting word and we rarely hear it or have the chance to use it, so i'm using it. i don't want it to feel left out. snort. anyhow, the dappled light around the pond allows me to get photos like these {especially the one below}...where it almost looks like i used a flash. 

gah, what? a flash? not this girl. not yet anyway. 

 

and when i hit "publish" the sun came out.....

i like to hike. actually i like to use the word hike when the word "walk" seems slightly lame. seriously though, what constitutes a hike? is it when you carry a backpack filled with macgyver like doodads in preparation of saving a life or getting yourself out of a sticky situation or is it when your "walking"  involves climbing upwards, as in a hill, or is it when you carry a backpack filled with miscellaneous camera lenses, bug spray, a cell phone and a water bottle? ding ding ding...it's the last one.

snort.

i've been trying to figure out what i'm missing. what's making me feel incomplete. turned off. slow and lethargic. a bit grouchy. quiet. questioning. withdrawn. insecure...and the list could go on. well, as completely idiotic as it sounds, i think it's the weather. somehow spring never showed up in its normal "spring like, happy to be here, don't you just love me" mode. instead, it moped its way here out of obligation, shrugged its shoulders, dragged its feet and drooled like it had been numbed with novocaine and then disappeared.

now summer is here. well it's june and my calendar says it's summer, but it's far from summer. summer usually brings a sense of renewal. a time for all of us to reset our complete selves...our moods, our attitudes, our joy, our hearts, our happiness ...well, our shoes, clothes, bags and sunglasses, too, but you know what i mean.

so that's how i feel. i feel like i haven't been able to reset myself. like a smoke detector, i need new batteries. granted, i've been going through the motions, wanting to believe that the "resetting" has actually occurred, but deep down, i know it hasn't. granted, we've had a few nice days, a few wonderful nights where eating outside with the love of my life was beyond perfect, but they were short lived. i want constant. actually, i need a few months of constant warmth and sun in order to reset myself.

i want/like to be hot. i want/like to sweat. i want/like to bare my skin. i want to be kissed by the sun. i want to sit in summer's arms, look into her eyes and fall in love like i do every year. is it just me, or is anyone else begging to be touched by summer?

last night, i had a wonderful time with our photography group. we're all camera nerds and we laugh and understand the same things. we share and critique photos, talk about lenses, straps, tripods, aperture and shutter speed and our upcoming events...and did i mention we laugh? a lot. we're such a wonderfully diverse group and it just makes me smile when we're all together.

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happy weekend everyone

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newest nuggets of inspiration 

blog one, blog two and blog three

because it's summer or something.....

i haven't been thinking of my blog lately at all. i wish i knew why, but i don't. i'm actually a bit baffled as this tends to be my happy place. maybe it's a bit of the "where in the hell is our" summer blues, as i search in my closet yet again for something that's going to keep me warm and dry instead of something cute and summery.

most of you know i love words and when they're in quotes, i'm literally giddy. so for now, until my mojo comes back, i'm taking some of my old photos and adding words of wisdom to them that i find on tumblr and pinterest.

thanks for your patience. i'm sure my randomness and quirkiness will be back soon.

her words, my photo.....

megan miranda, fracture

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yesterday i pulled a deer tick out of my husband's leg. the head didn't come with it. darn it. no worries though, as urgent care took care of that and sent him on his way with an antibiotic. oh mondays, well summer too, you're so special. by the way, does this story sound familiar? remember this?

kim is the big winner from my previous post. she's a smart one, that girl. 

i was upset on friday, so to rid myself of my pent up frustration, i ran around our house like a mad woman, cleaning everything in sight. let me rephrase that. i actually cleaned and wiped pollen off of everything {and i mean everything} in our house. we have yet to run the air conditioner this year and instead, our windows have been open almost everyday. let me just say, pollen is gross and disgusting.

unless you're a bee.

thank you for the prayers. they were answered and let me just say, miracles do happen.