okay, okay...last photo upload today...seriously!

More photos from today...

Just can't get enough

My parents have a photo of me from right around this age where I am loaded down with pacifiers in my mouth. It's three or four of them -- I can't remember off the top of my head. Anyway, in my family, it's kind of a famous photo. So when I went into Adelaide's room today and saw this double-fisted pacy action, I had to get some shots. Mom and Dad, this one's for you. :)

A few more for you

Which one do YOU like best?

The stylized color photo?
The bright and colorful option?
The black and white?

Let me know what you think! Leave a comment and show your preference.

The Little "Graduate"

I used to make fun of Kindergarten "Graduations." I thought they were overdone and silly -- what's the big deal, I thought.

Now I know.

Will had Kindergarten graduation today. I guess it was a little more special for us because he won't be going back to this school next year -- it was goodbye. We're excited about homeschooling, but we did have a good year here.

It was a cute ceremony. They called them up, one by one, and presented them with their portfolios. They read little statements from the kids about what their favorite things were and what they wanted to be when they grow up. Of course, they said "Will wants to be an architect, engineer, or inventor when he grows up." Afterwards, Will took issue with that.

"I want to be an architect, engineer, AND inventor. They said 'or.' It should have been 'and,'" he said matter-of-factly.

Will's little statement, read by the teacher, also said he enjoyed singing "Harvest Moon" because it got stuck in his head, and that he likes recess and center time.

The kids sang "We Are the Young" and "Rainbow Connection," which will be stuck in my head for at least a week. When we got home, we looked at his portfolio, which was a lot of entertainment. (I'll post some here later."

Anyway, it was really cute, and now I have a "Kindergarten Graduate."

*sigh*

Now for the rest of the kitchen...

When we bought this house two years ago, we knew the microwave was about to go. It was awful looking. The door was cracked on the plastic, and it was about as ancient as over-the-range units get. So it took us a while, but Ben just installed this flashy new superstah in the kitchen. He did a great job, and I have to say, it makes the rest of the appliances look like dowdy old maids.

Of course, as with all home improvement projects in this house, he did have to do battle with the Ghosts of Idiots Past. Yes, someone (we think probably the previous owners, who made a host of bad design and "improvement" decisions we've had to undo and redo) decided when they were going to put the ugliest backsplash in town up, that rather than tile it, the way one normally does -- you know, with thin set and all that fun stuff -- that they'd just use construction glue.

Yep, construction glue.

Basically, the new microwave was a bit larger. So Ben got a tile cutter, scored the tiles just where they needed to be cut off, and tried to pop them off. No dice. The whole tile started cracking and coming off. He was confused until he looked on the back and discovered the work of He Who Should Be Banned From Lowes. (That's the nice name we call him.) So basically, he had to tear off the whole line of tile, which really burned Ben's biscuits (figuratively, not literally, of course, if you notice the toasty biscuits he made me on mother's day below our new appliance) since there are many half-done projects haunting him in the house. (Disclaimer: these half-done projects are usually my fault. I start something and then can't finish it because of the kids, and, well, we could use some DIY To The Rescue sometimes.) Anyway, the shiny-diviney new microwave looks so nice, I am now itching to replace the Reagan-era knobs as well as the terribly placed wall-oven and dishwasher. But all in good time, I know, all in good time. After all, who knows what strangeness we'll encounter when we begin those tasks. At least Ben has Hazmat training.

Slowly....losing....mind...

I shouldn't be writing this post right now. I have too much to do.

And yet, I must. Both of my kids are in the bathtub right now, and I'm just a demented cry away from them. No danger.

Oh, wait. Actually, I had to run in there for a second. Adelaide took her $50 custom-fitted ear molds out and tried to chew on them like they're hot-pink bubble gum. At least we caught her.

So, as I was saying, I am slowly -- hold on! I'll be right back!

Sorry. Will said it looked like Adelaide was testing out her diaperless power in the pool water. False alarm, but we're careful after she doused all her squishy foam bath letters in poop this weekend as I sat right beside her and played with her. It was diarrhea -- she couldn't help it. But seeing her go from clean bath baby to child-in-a-dangerous-cesspool-of-poop in 0.5 seconds imparts a bit of stress.

So, anyway. I am slowly losing my mi -- what? Oh, hold on. That's the phone ringing. It was an editor asking me for a last-minute assignment. I could say no, but I don't want to. I want to write. I just have to understand that my brain will be stretched to the limits of what God intended as I attempt to melodically string words together as a cacophony of Dora the Explorer and Will's endless streams of questions rattle me back to reality.

At least the house is clean.

No, not really. I can't even pull off that lie in cyberspace. The kitchen is piled with dishes, the laundry room beckons with its Himalayan piles of clothing, and even the master bedroom is a haven for discarded and now hidden boxes of raisins and papers that I really *should* go through.

So what was I saying? Oh, yeah. I'm slowly losing my mind. But no time for that now -- I'm on deadline and my kids are clean.

I love my Nikon

I love it, love it, love it. I could never get the depth of focus before that I can now. That's a photo of my hydrangea from the front yard. My nature photos before were just not exciting. I mean, they were really, really boring. And even though I'm very new at nature stuff, I can see what this camera is capable of through my budding hydrangea. And that is with the kit lens, not a macro lens or any special settings. Amazing!
And I love the detail I get here. My lighting wasn't quite right, but I was able to fix it up a bit without it becoming "noisy" with speckles and such. I mean, I'll always look at this photo and know she was chowing on cheddar sun chips before going out in the backyard and playing in the dirt. Now if the homeowner's association would just get rid of that friggin' dead tree cluttering up all my photos...but I digress. I just needed to make a public declaration of love for my new photography equipment!

Do you have a *problem,* mommy?

Alternately titled, "It's Too Dang Early In The Morning To Put That Thing in My Face."

Seriously, though, her expressions lately have just been classic. And can you believe it...I now HAVE my much, much, MUCH longed-for DSLR! For my birthday, Ben got together with each family and devised a plan to deliver my Nikon D80, and I just couldn't be happier. It is incredible. The speed, the clarity, the color...it blows my mind. I love the depth of focus control and manual abilities I have, and I know I haven't even scratched the surface of what this camera and I are capable of doing together! And Laila is already regretting it. "Seriously, Mom, could you PUT that thing away?"

Hehe. I can't wait until she's 13 years old and makes this SAME face at me. It will be a nice comparison -- "incredulous Laila faces through the ages."

And now my DSLR is ready to grab them all and freeze them in photographic time.

*big happy smile*