There are sometimes that you just need to step away and hide for a bit. The last several months have been just that for me as far as blogging goes. There have been lots of changes since July, lots of stuff going on and basically I just didn't feel the need to blog about most of it. My photography work taking off in ways that I never really imagined. Stephanie and a heart condition. Life in general...Todd having to leave for Afghanistan, just to be able to have a job. Lots of stuff, and lots to adjust too.
I'm not really sure why the sudden break of my blog silence today, but maybe it is a sign that new and current normal is finally settling in. How long it will last is the real question though. It may be hit and miss but I think I will try at least, because I do have a lot of photo's to share.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Sometimes...
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Forgotten Barns of Iowa
Sorry about the delay in posting yet again, but there was a medical emergency with my oldest. She is out of the hospital and while we really don't have an answer as to what or why, I'm sure that we will because her PCM is working very hard towards figuring this all out.
Anyway, old barns is going to be the theme for the next couple of days. You know the one's that you look at and wonder just how in the world is it still standing. Once upon a time the old barns were a dime a dozen, but with new highways built to bypass the very small rural towns, they are more difficult to find. You have to get off of the highway and onto the back roads and dirt roads to find them anymore. They have been replaced with the shiny new metal barns that require less maintenance. While yes that makes sense, there just isn't the same look that an old wooden barn has. I know that change happens and that change is usually good, but give me an old wooden, broken down, don't know how it manages to keep standing barn any day. There is something to be said about keeping reminders of the past and where it started that far out weigh the new shiny look.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Gone far to long
I'm back again! I have been gone for far to long. There was an 18 day trip back to Nebraska and Iowa to visit family, then having any number of fire evacuees staying with us once we got back home. Then clean up of the house from all of the company that had been here, and just busy life stuff in general added on top of all that. Oh and I have been stuck in portrait editing for the last several weeks too. But now I'm done with the portraits and hopefully back on track enough to start posting some photo's daily from my now huge collection of shot's taken while on vacation. I'm going to start with this peaceful scene and hopefully work on putting thoughts together for more blog posts this week.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Ah the pretty colors
I've neglected my blog here for far to long. I really haven't meant to, it is just something that happens when I let myself get distracted with a little thing called life. There have been lots of projects being worked on around the house. Ton's of running kids here, there, and everywhere. Plus just a busy schedule of other things filling my days. This week is a prime example of busy...Five horse back riding lessons in one week. Girls prepping for the next J-6 riding event this Saturday. Birthday party, graduation party, science project, and a handful of other assorted things. (Maybe two handfuls)
My other keep me busy has been planning a summer vacation home to visit. Come this July 15th we have lived in Arizona for 7 years, and I have only made trips back home twice in that time, and both times were sadly for funerals. So I think it is about time to make a trip that is for happy reasons...like we just want to! Of course my camera is going with me and I'm going to see just how many pictures of people and places I can take. I have lots of nieces and nephews that I would love to photograph and I can even think of a couple of places that I would love to get some pictures of.
In the meantime I can't promise that I won't continue my neglect of my poor blog here, but who knows maybe there will be a ton more pictures from this coming weekend that will inspire me to try posting regularly.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Wrapping up at the J-6
Time to wrap up this week of pictures and tales from the J-6. I have tons of favorites and love all of the pictures of my girls, but this random shot photo is my most favorite one. I think it sums up what a full day of riding in the J-6 event will do to all of the riders regardless of their age. This little guy rode his heart out at the event, and when he needed rest his very loyal horse made sure he got some.
I hope that everyone has had a great week, and that there is a wonderful, restful weekend waiting for all of us.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Cheyenne at the J-6
Cheyenne rode Pi for the J-6 riding event this past Saturday. Pi is a gaited horse and her and Chey have a lot in common...they both have attitude! I don't mean that in a bad way either by the way. If it is possible for a horse to love a person then Pi loves Cheyenne and in turn Cheyenne completely loves Pi. They are a perfect match.
Chey won 2 first place, 2 second place, 1 third place, and also won the high point division champion ribbon. Cheyenne was very much all about supporting her sisters and the other riders on Saturday, and I'm very proud of her for that. Oh yeah and all of the ribbons that she brought home too.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Paige at the J-6
I know that she isn't on a horse in this picture, but this is one of my favorites of Paige from this past Saturday. I mean look at her...just perfectly comfortable looking standing inside the practice arena, watching everyone warm up.
Paige being my complicated young woman is actually off of the horse because the huge crowd made her very nervous and upset. Which lead to it all getting her in brain, which lead to her horse Bob feeling her anxiety, which lead to Bob being fairly hyper. I was very proud of her though because she got off of the horse and talked to Dad, and talked to Mom and spent some time just watching and getting her mind settled. I took time to talk to their teacher/coach and then she spent extra time talking and calming our Miss Paige down. It is funny to me that Paige who doesn't let many people in finds great comfort with her teacher. Which was truly a
blessing on Saturday.
Paige won 2 third place, and two fourth place ribbons. She had one time thrown out because of the back end of Bob crossing the timer plain, which disqualified that time for the ride. I think Paige enjoyed the comfort and encouragement from her sisters, her teacher, and Todd and I enough to not let that one ride set back get her down though. Her teacher was very proud of her for getting back up on Bob and riding though, and for pushing through the whole day. I think everyone needs to look out though because now Paige knows what she needs to do to prepare herself for the next riding event.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Stephanie at the J-6
As promised I am back and going to start oldest to youngest with posting pictures and tales of how they did.
The events were the Clover leaf barrels, washington poles, hour glass, gated keyhole, and cow barrel. Stephanie rode Valentine for all of her events on Saturday. If you rated horse on an alphabetic system Valentine would be about a "J" for needed skill level. Stephanie is the only one with enough consistent ability to put on Valentine for the whole day. Plus Valentine gets a bit of an attitude with the other girls every now and then because she isn't quiet a finished horse.
Miss Stephanie brought home 2 second place, 1 fourth place, and 2 fifth place ribbons on Saturday. Turns out Steph was more about the equitation on the horse during the even than being about the speed. Their teacher/coach is now hoping and planning on getting her ready for fall and English riding events where all that equitation will pay off well.
Funny thing about my Miss Stephanie is that her favorite ribbons are the fifth place one's because they are pink! I have to give my girl credit though, when it came to sitting in the saddle and looking almost perfect at all points in time form wise...she nailed it!
Monday, April 4, 2011
3 G Girls
The girls rode in their first J-6 riding event this past Saturday, and oh what a great day it was! Being Mom I could not have been more proud of my girls than what I was Saturday, and not just because they brought home a ton of ribbons. Their support of each other over the course of the day, their support of the other competitors, and just watching how much they have grown in ability over the course of the last year. WOW is about all I have for that.
The flip side of it was the photographer in me was in pure joy overload with all of the beautiful horses to photograph. Over the course of this week I will post favorite pictures of each of my girls and share how each on of them did, and of course post some of my just favorite pictures of other horses and riders.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Work
Working on projects around the house are still keeping me busy here. This past Saturday though brought the huge project of working on the back yard. Actually Saturday started off with great frustration over a sink drain that broke and leaked water everywhere in the master bathroom, but upon arriving at my favorite place to shop anymore, we saw BOB sod! Not just BOB sod but BOB sod at a really cheap price! So 600 square feet, Todd's truck very heavily weighed down, all of us raking, lifting, carrying, and rolling out, we have grass in the back yard. Now we just need to get about 2000 more square feet of it to have the back yard that we want. (I'm pretty sure my whole body just screamed at the thought of that one.) As soon as we were done laying the sod out the girls had their shoes and socks off for a walk in the grass barefoot. After some quick clean up 2 of the 3 girls went for sun dresses and bare feet for playing in the new non sticky things grass. (Thanks for the dresses Oma and for the one who just didn't want a dress, she got two necklaces one of which being the most wanted black swirl one from the first batch.)
It is amazing how much the look in the back changed just by adding the sod. I'm hoping we can get more this week and hopefully even finish the whole back yard before the end of this month. It is heavy hard work, but oh so very worth it!
Friday, February 25, 2011
Feline Friday
Miss Mina kitty loves to spend her day playing with the little soccer ball toys that we have in the house. She loves to play with just about anything that will roll quickly and can be tossed around. The day of the Super Bowl we spent more time watching the cat attack the screen where those football players where tossing around the ball. Who ever had the ball was the one that she was leaping at the screen to attack. I'm not sure but I think she would make a great football player. She would claw their eyes out to get the football and run like mad to keep it! Oh and all the quarter backs better really look out cause she really doesn't seem to like any of you hog that football and keep her from getting to play with it.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Now What?
Last week saw the final painting of the final walls in the house. I no sooner had all of the paint brushes, rollers, and other paint supplies cleaned and had the thought go through my head "Ok now time to get started on those ceilings!". Actually the ceilings are going to wait just a little bit longer for right now. There is a whole long list of projects that I have. Sadly some of my next projects like new ceiling fans and blinds are going to cost a bit more than the painting did. But slowly and each pay day there is budget being set aside to go towards all those things. Let's not forget that there are also projects outside the house being done too. Sometime this week there is going to be some more fruit tree's bought and planted. I'm not going to bother trying to list out all of the projects because this would turn into the never ending post then. There is more than enough, and there is a want to get a good amount done here in the next couple of weeks before our much warmer weather starts to show up.
In the mean time I will try to take some pictures and post them of all of the area's of the house. and I'm also going to figure the answer to "now what?".
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
My Little Diva
Just a quick picture of Chey (a.k.a. my little diva) from this past Friday's winter formal. She had a wonderful time!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Keeping Busy
What has been keeping me from posting on a regular basis? All things house related of course. Painting, planting, planning, all thoughts are currently tuned to a just about the house process. Last weekend while waiting for the call that Mina was out of surgery and ready to be picked up, I removed the 5 foot mirror that took up the entire wall of the half bath off of the family room and painted it. (You can see the mirror in the reflection of the new smaller mirror that is now in there.) After finishing that project it hit me that I only have one large area left to paint! The living room and dinning room are going to be the last rooms to get their new color added to the walls. Don't think that all of the painting will be done then though...oh heaven's no. There is an issue of the ceiling needs painted. It seems and looks as if they used several different kinds of white for the ceilings in here and that is something that I plan of fixing. There is also an issue of very large not needed or wanted mirrors in the other bathrooms that need to come down and get the walls behind painted before new mirrors go up. So I guess when I add all of that I'm not really as close to being done painting as I first thought.
Ever so slowly though I am getting to the point of starting on other things of my list of "Changes I want to make" to the house. The list is really pretty long, but keeping with the set so much aside each pay day for budget is working out very nicely. Also trying to alternate between work inside the house and landscaping outside. Our first fruit tress have been planted and the area has been planned out for planting more in the coming weeks. The apple trees right now just look so very small and lonely. I have been mentally drawing plans for flower beds in the front of the house, and wondering if Trinity doggy would leave some alone in the back yard area. Probably not since she has a real love of digging and chewing on things.
Anyway, these are the things that are keeping me busy right now and away from posting. Plus then add on just being Mom and having to transport kids from here to there. I will continue from time to time though to put something up here to share. I hope that everyone has a great Sunday.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
One Nation with Hope
I find myself this morning going over everything that happened yesterday and the bombardment of news that ensued. More than that I find myself wondering how to explain to my daughters just how someone could do what they did yesterday in Tucson in the name of politics.
All three of the girls had the opportunity to meet Gabby Giffords over this past 4th of July while working at the event in the park in Sierra Vista. All three commented on how much they liked her. Her genuine concern, and care about things people talked to her about. A politician that listened to what other had to say instead of just pushing her own words on everyone around her. They were struck by that and they liked that a lot about her. When the news broke about the shooting at a rally in Tucson yesterday at first their attention wasn't really caught by it. Sadly I think that as a nation we are all just a little to used to hearing about shootings, or bombings, or just death in general now a days and sometimes the first thought is "Great it is just yet another one." Then they heard Gabrielle Giffords had been shot. Suddenly all three of them were glued to the coverage, talking about her, talking about their time meeting her, wondering why someone would do such a thing, wondering how someone could do such a thing. They talked with each other, they texted with friends and at the end of the day there still were no good answers to the question going through their minds. Even sadder is that there will be no good answers to their questions and the best answer that I have for them is that it is a nation very divided that we live in now, and there are some who are willing to go to very extreme levels to make a point. Even if no one understands just what that point is.
I've said many prayers since yesterday for those who were shot, for those who lost their lives, and for the families that have to try to piece their broken hearts back together again in the after math of all of this and I will continue for days I'm sure. I hope to be able to give some explanation to my girls that will answer their questions. I hope to be able to understand it myself. I also hope that as a nation we can take a step back and take a look at where we are going without pointing fingers and placing blame.
