Simple Monday

IMG_0803, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Just a quick picture of Miss Lucy kitty. Lucky Lucy is living up to her name because she is lucky daily that I don't kick her tiny little kitten butt! Lucy has the idea that she is to good for kitten food and must eat people food...not like we haven't had kitties before her who tried that.

Late snow

Late April Storm in AZ, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Here for your viewing pleasure is a photo taken Friday after all the rain, snow, and ice stopped. I spent a good share of the day wondering if I was actually in Arizona that day. Our last winter storm usually comes in conjunction with the Easter weekend. I guess this year mother nature thought that one wasn't enough so mixed up a good one for us. It was very pretty at times, and once the snow stopped and the sun finally got to come out from behind the clouds that had been hiding it for three days the snow was gone in about an hour. Almost all of my plants faired well with the cold, just some mild pruning of some that got a little cold burnt on leaves or flowers.
I'm just hoping that we don't have another storm like it this week. Warmer and windy would be fine, I don't want to risk another windy and wow cold with the plants.

I hope that everyone has a great Monday and that the week brings great things to all of us.

Simple Monday

IMG_8928, originally uploaded by torri_g.

There was nothing simple about getting this photo uploaded this morning, but after 10 minutes it finally is up. I think I'm going to stick with a simple theme for this week and posting just a picture and very few words.

I hope that everyone has a great Monday and hopefully it will be a good week.

Monday morning

Artwork by Sweetpea, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Yet again the weekend passed to quickly. Of course having all but one person sick with flu I really would have liked for this weekend to take a little extra time and give everyone the possibility of feeling better. Sweetpea is the only one not being taken down by the bug in right now. I was doing a good job of out running it till late Friday night. Saturday I tried to keep going, but come Saturday night that was it for me. Binky Sue and Little Bug seem to be feeling better, but like said I would really like for them to have a little bit more of a weekend to rest. It is Monday though and time for heading back to the school that had 21% of the student body out last week because of flu and flu like symptoms. So I'm just going to cross my fingers, hope and pray that we can be done with the flu in this house. Now with that said excuse me while my body tries to make up it's mind if I'm going to have a hot flash or a case of the chills. I hope everyone has a good day, and try to avoid the germs that are flying around early this year.

Monday again already?

IMG_7102, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Just doesn't seem like it should be Monday morning again already. The weekend had slow feel but just to quickly was done and I'm not ready for it to be Monday again.
There are lots of things going on this week, and hopefully I will find a little bit of time to get out with my camera. Would like to see about getting back up into the canyon area's one more time before all of the butterflies are gone.

I hope that everyone has a good start to the week.

Mindless Monday

IMG_6712, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Mindless seems to be the name of the game for me the last couple of days. It was another day of doing a lot of nothing for all of us. Tomorrow is back to the routine though which means lots of time spent in the car for me. I hope that everyone had a great holiday weekend and that the week is good for all of us.

Monday Morning Mindless

IMG_6589, originally uploaded by torri_g.

After sitting here yesterday afternoon taking mindless pictures of the girls being goofy, I've realized that I really need to get out of the house with my camera. It isn't that I don't enjoy taking pictures of my girls, but they are about all I have taken pictures of in the last couple of months. One can only shot so many pictures of Binky Sue doing her text messaging before it just gets old. Text messaging is her life line to the world by the way, or at least that is what I'm sure she would say if asked.

There isn't all that much planned for the first part of this week so maybe I will finally pick up the camera and get out of this house. I hope that everyone has a good start to the week.

Monday Rambling

IMG_5837, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Yesterday and today have probably been the laziest days we have had as a whole family in a good while. The only one that probably did much of anything today is Binky Sue and that is only because a friend called and asked her to spend the day and stay the night over at her house. The rest of us have done very little here. Wait very little would imply that we did something...okay we did nothing! There has been chilled out television watching, naps, and not much of anything else. Ah what a great couple of days it has been. Tomorrow though will be different. The time has come whether I'm ready or not to shot Sweetpea's senior portraits. I'm going to start with the indoor portraits since I think they are going to be more problematic for me than the outdoor one's. I'm hoping that with getting busy shooting portraits will spring me into getting some much needed house cleaning done, laundry done and a few other things around here. I'm working it in my mind that I will not down load any pictures till they are all shot.(This thought may end up being a huge failure, but I'm really going to try.)

I hope that everyone has had a good Monday and that tomorrow is another good day.

Mindless Monday

IMG_5700, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Because the easiest things for me to photograph are either in the house or just outside my front door, I have another sunset photo.
Kind of getting a very slow start to the day here because of staying up late with the girls. Mimi left very early this morning to head back home and we were up late being goofy and filling the house laughter. She has to head back though since she has a boot camp date for the end of the month. With great protest from her last night I handed her probably the single most important thing that you can hand someone heading out for boot camp...a new book of stamps. It is the not so subtle hint for her to write to us and let us know how she is doing. When she has some free time of course, which odds are she will not have much. My real hope is that she will send at least one and then we can send her mail encouraging her during her training time for the Army. She may not be my baby girl, but she is in my heart just as much as any of my own baby girls. We are proud of Mimi, be safe traveling back home, and enjoy the last couple of weeks before your feet start walking the path that you have chosen for your adult life.

Yes, I'm a little emotional here this morning, but saying good bye is never a great thing. I'm sure that I will have three girls here today that will be even more emotional than myself, but that is just how it works out every now and then. I hope that everyone has a good Monday and that there is a good week ahead for all of us.

Mindless Monday

John Slaughter House, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Still using pictures from my trip a couple of weeks ago. If you ever find yourself out in Arizona, or if you live in Arizona already, the trip down to Douglas and the John Slaughter Ranch is worth the time spent on the sixteen mile gravel road. The house and the buildings around are open as museum, and are filled with time period things. There are old fort ruins up the hill from the main house, and views of the mountains in all directions. There is also a beautiful pond to do picnic lunches by, and the best part...real green grass! The soft makes you want to take your shoes off and walk through type. Not the course, risk getting sticky burrs in your feet type that is found just about everywhere in Arizona. The ranch is about as far south in Arizona as you can go and still be on the U.S. side of the border. When you are standing near the visitors center you can look to the right and see the fence that is maybe 600 feet from where you are standing, that is the border. There is a farm with cows just on the other side. If you make the climb up to the old fort ruins you can watch the cars driving along highway 2 in Mexico.
The entire ranch is beautiful and quite a surprising change from the desert look that you see as you travel on the road to get out to it.

I still have more picture of the area to post, and hopefully will be able to that this week. I hope that everyone has a good Monday, and that there is a week of just being busy enough a head of us all.

Mindless Monday

IMG_5023, originally uploaded by torri_g.

After getting so very much done around the house this weekend I'm in the mood for some mindless time. Since today is day without any appointments of any kind, I'm going to take today as that mindless day. There are enough days this week to keep my mind busy with keeping track of just when and where I'm supposed to be and with who.

I hope that everyone enjoys a good Monday.

Mindless Monday

IMG_4388, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Alright I'm looking around here and seeing all that I still have to catch up on and really would like to get in my car and go do something else instead. I know, make up my mind already! I'm hoping today will actually be another very productive day in this house. So far three of my four people are off and out of the house, and my thoughts are work until I collapse this afternoon. If I can get everything I want done around the house today then maybe I can head out for some picture taking tomorrow or Wednesday. I would like to see about getting out to the canyon areas and checking what if any desert blooms may be going now. There are a couple of other day trips that I would like to make with just my camera, but until I'm caught back up around this house I just will have to fight off the urge to go.

I hope that everyone enjoys a good Monday.

Easy Monday Morning

IMG_2366, originally uploaded by torri_g.

One more picture from the town on Tubac before I move on to pictures that are going to make me think. Yes I'm still in take it easy and don't work my brain to much mode right now. I'm knocking on wood but happy to say that my coughing fits are finally getting less and less painful and further and further apart. Of course I think sleeping so many hours this weekend may have done me some real good. I'm sure that other than feeling like I have slept the last 48 hours away, sleeping 12 straight hours from Saturday night to Sunday was probably the best thing that I could have done.

I think this is a very light week for things going on here. At least I haven't been told about anything super busy by any of the members of my family. So maybe I can play some catch up around the house, and who knows...maybe by mid week this cold will just be a memory. I hope that everyone has a beautiful Monday, and that this is a week of simple days.

Call it what you want

IMG_2149, originally uploaded by torri_g.

You know those times where you feel like you have been moving for days on end with no real rest, even if you have slept? Well, that is how I'm feeling tonight. I know that I have gotten sleep in the last week, but I'm feeling like I have spent so very much more time being busy. I still have a list of things that I want to get done, projects to finish up, and the usual cleaning of house that heave forbid you should ever miss one day because man it just gets bad so fast. The sad thing is that my thoughts keep leaning towards grabbing the camera bag and just heading out for a day. Makes it kind of difficult to stay on task.

The reason I'm using this photo for this post...look in the bottom right hand corner of the picture. The speed limit 5 is the reason for this picture here tonight, because I really would like for things to slow down to that or less for just a day so I can take some time to catch up with myself here.
I hope that everyone had a good Monday, and that the week slows down just a little so that we can all enjoy it.

Dawn's very early light

IMG_2034, originally uploaded by torri_g.

If it is possible to predict a week based on Sunday night, then this is going to be a very strange and long week, that is going to leave people in my house very tired. By 10:30 pm on Sunday nights, everyone but me is sleeping. Last night was not an exception to that, till Army Guys cell phone rang. The reason doesn't matter, but what it triggered was nothing short of comical. Army Guy had to get up and dressed and head into work, and with the opening and closing of the front door it triggered girls waking up but of course they didn't come out of their rooms at the same time. As I stood in the hall way and explained twice that;

"Yes, Daddy just left to go to work."

"No, it isn't morning yet"

"Yes, you should climb back in bed now."

"No, I'm sure it isn't morning yet."

"Yes, it is okay if you go back to sleep"

I'm just glad that I didn't have to to the comical routine three times in as we neared 11:00 pm. This morning knowing that he was up very late, when his alarm went off I woke up. I'm not really sure that he was understanding the questions that I was asking him at 0430, but I'm hoping that at least one answer I got from him was correct. "What time do you need to be into the office this morning?" I have tried to keep girls getting ready for school as quiet as humanly possible here this morning. Bigger issue is keeping animals quiet at this hour of the day. Hopefully his reply of by 10 is accurate, because I have no intentions of waking him till about 0900. If it was wrong...well I guess they know how to get a hold of him via his cell phone and wake him up yet again.

I hope that everyone has a good Monday, and that this week isn't one that leaves us all drug out tired.

Mindless Monday

IMG_1667, originally uploaded by torri_g.

Ever get that feeling that your brain stepped out for a break and didn't bother to tell you about it? Well, that is the feeling that I have had going on pretty much all day. I'm happy to have a day of doing little to nothing, but I'm going to need my brain to come back from it's vacation.

Since I don't seem to have all that much brain power here today, let's just all look at the pretty picture of the desert, mountains, and sky. Ohh...so pretty!

I hope that everyone had a good Monday.

Monday morning randomness

IMG_1394, originally uploaded by torri_g.

The girls helped me with yet another Sunday night camera test. They may not like me pointing the camera at them, but they sure don't seem to mind if I point it at glass filled with water or sparkling cider that they get to then drop other things into. Last night though my little artist Sweetpea got right into Mom's choice of camera and light testing, but colors and anything dealing with the blending of colors is so right up her alley really. Food dye being dropped into water makes some very cool looking effects. We learned last night that the warmer the water, the quicker the dye would drop and spread. The cooler the water the longer it would take, and the dye would do more of a almost hover. As you add new drops of dye the colors will only blend in the bottom of the glass. The streaks of color in the top of the glass will swirl as if to avoid blending.

Alright so maybe no one really is all that interested in reading about this, but I now have till next Sunday to come up with the next one because the girls really liked this little test. Besides it is better than talking about the fact that I'm now dreaming about things that I need to organize, get rid of, or clean in this house. I'm thinking it is going to be another week that my family should beware of returning home in the afternoon. Anyway, I hope that everyone has a great Monday, stay safe and warm where ever you are.