Patience

I actually forgot all about taking this picture, even though I was really excited about it at the time.  I guess I've been preoccupied with my surgery last Friday, and then a busy weekend full of activities that I muddled through with my bandaged hands.

I've been trying to take a picture of this little guy for weeks.  Literally.  OK, well...  I've been trying to take a picture of this little guy, or one of the other 200 of his buddies that look just like him, for weeks.  They live in the beautiful, massive knockout rose bushes at Grab-A-Java on Hedley Street.  Every day, I pull in and take my place in line, patiently waiting for my turn to order coffee (which I never actually have to order because someone always has it ready for me when I pull up to the window because they are THAT good there).  I usually sit next to the rose bushes for at least one car's order time ahead of me.  And every day, I try to take a picture of the little birds.   I roll down my window about half a block before I turn in.  I even started holding my camera up so the little guys wouldn't be scared by the movement of me lifting it.   All to no avail.  Half a second before every shot, they always fly away.

Until last Thursday.  Last Thursday morning, after I had my coffee in hand, and was about to pull out onto the street, I looked over and saw this little guy perched so nicely, as if he was patiently waiting for me.   I rolled down my window.  He didn't move.  I lifted my camera.  He didn't fly away.  I took a picture.  And another.  And another.  He stayed.  Granted, it's not the best picture ever taken, but...  it's a start. 

If you know me much at all, you know I've taken hundreds of pictures of birds.  And if you know me much at all, you know that only 3 or 4 of said pictures are any good.  I guess I keep taking more (and more) pictures because maybe I'm just not ready to give up.   Maybe I just need to be more patient.  

I'll work on that this week.

Post-Op Day 2

I had a little ganglion cyst removed from my wrist, and also a tiny little cyst removed from the tip of my middle finger, early yesterday morning.  Of course, as would be my luck, both hands were involved, so I was mostly useless yesterday, laying around with both hands iced, and propped on pillows.  But today is a totally different story.  I'm really surprised at how good I feel.  I know the doctor told me it wouldn't be bad, and that I would be back to work on Monday with just band-aids, but I expected at least a little more pain than I've had.  I'm thrilled at how I'm doing.  Just a little tylenol, and I'm mostly fine.  Granted, I can't lift anything very heavy, and I don't have full dexterity right now, but overall, I'm having a "normal" day.   Especially with a little (OK, alot of) help from the H.H. and from Jack.

Tonight is our church's major fall fundraiser - a chicken dinner, and I didn't get any desserts made for it "pre-op" on Thursday night.  I was feeling bad that I wasn't contributing this time, so Jack helped me out by whipping up some brownies.  I love the fact that he likes to cook.  And the fact that he's getting good at doing alot of it on his own. 

With my "semi-down" time, I have been able to get a little bit caught up on my Picture Of The Day page.  I may not be able to type very fast, but I can type, and thanks to spell check, it ends up alright.  Hopefully, I can get completely caught up, and then keep up on it.  I've had to manipulate the dates a little to keep the pictures in order, and I hope I'm keeping that all straight.  Lots more updates until I'm finished, but I'm at least finally making headway!

The Pictures

Bear with me over the next few days...  I'm going to make a concerted effort to catch up my pictures of the day blog.

I use Project Life, and the kids seem to like being able to check it out as it progresses. (even though I'm always behind on updating that, too...) But there are so many others at a distance who are interested, so....  I think I'm going to take the approach of using the same pictures, and basically copying my journal card comments to the blog entry for the day.

Hopefully, I'll get myself in order in the coming days...  stay tuned.

About That Card...

Well, I wish I could add my little endorsement into the post WITH the card image, but that's not working out, so...  I'll just tack on another post. 

I gotta say "Hooray for Shutterfly"! If you aren't signed up to get their special offers, you really must sign up... I received an offer via email today for 10 free (yes, I said free) cards, so... I decided to take advantage of it.

I used my current fav flower pic - the sunflower on the Mustang preserve outside Eagle Butte, SD. I can't wait until they come! There's no replacing a real, live, hand-written note, and I've been slackin' about sending those. What timing! Shutterfly offer came just in time for me to turn over a new card-sending leaf.

Yay!

5x7 Folded Card

Picture In Landscape 5x7 folded card

Click here to browse Shutterfly's modern graduation invitations.

View the entire collection of cards.

Homecoming Success!

The girls both had a fabulous time at homecoming!  I'll admit, I was a little worried for a while - what with all the fuss about fixing hair, and finding shoes, and all that junk.  I was, indeed, a little worried that they wouldn't have a good time. 

But they did.

They really did.

And they looked so beautiful!  And so grown up. 

I didn't get to take the pictures of Kathryn and her friends before they left for dinner.  I was frantically curling Sarah's hair.  It took longer than I'd anticipated to get her lovely locks transformed into loose, tousled, flowing curls.  So...  I sent the handsome husband, armed with the Canon, to snap some shots.  And he did a fine job!

Both girls went with a group of friends - Kathryn with a smallish group...

And Sarah with a rather large one...

 

Sarah's group of friends met at one house for pictures and dinner.  The girls, in particular, had fun with the pictures.

After lots and lots - and lots - of picture taking, the kids all had dinner together (served to them by us parental-type folks) and then rode together to the dance in one big RV.  It was a great send off!

And Sunday was spent retelling story after story about what a great time they both had at the dance, which is EXACTLY how homecoming is supposed to go.   Guess my little bit of worrying was for naught.   :)

Homecoming!

I should be slogging, not blogging...  but here I am.  Unable to motive to put on those running shoes, worried more about my zillion loads of laundry and pile of dishes that need done.  (OK, well, not THAT worried, obviously, since I'm sitting at my little desk blogging away... but you know what I mean!)

It's homecoming weekend for us, and I'm SO excited about it.  Yes, I do realize that it's silly for me to be excited.  After all, I'm not going to get dressed up and go to a dance.  It's a different kind of excited.  It's a parent kind of excited...

Kathryn's a Junior this year, so it's a whole different kind of homecoming for her.  She's almost all grown up.  She's an upperclassman.  Ah....  upperclassman.  I remember those two years....  you're the "big kids", the ones who set the tone for just about everything in the high school.  Juniors really do rule.  Seniors are mostly coasting - just about over high school, ready to get out and start living life.  And the underclassmen are still trying to find their niche, figure out the pecking order, and settle into high school.  Yup.  Juniors rule.  So it's GREAT year for Kathryn.  She's going to homecoming tonight knowing she'll make it a fun night with friends.

Sarah, on the other hand, is a Freshman.  Everything's new to her this year.  It's her first big "dress up" dance.  She'll walk in there tonight, and be so excited just to be experiencing it all.  I remember that feeling, too, and I remember it's such a great feeling!   It's sort of a "I'm really in high school" feeling.  She's finding her niche, and figuring things out.  She's going to have such a great time at her first homecoming dance, learning so much about the fun part of high school life.

And they are both going to look fabulous!  It's so fun for me to see them all dressed up, with hair and nails done, wearing heels, and beautiful dresses.  I can't wait!

But, now, in the meantime, I really do have to get busy on the laundry and cleaning.  I've procrastinated slogging completely out of my morning, but the chores just won't go away.