Nemo and friends

Yes, we have Nemo and friends vinyl clings gracing the windows of our van. Katie loves them. Me? Not so much. Do I even have to mention how many time I go to look back to my left to see if there is a car there and I see NEMO out of the corner of my eye?! Yeah.

These photos could also be explained by the phrase, "what happens when you give Samuel the camera." At least I'm shielding you all from the horrors of my van. Or maybe I shouldn't? It would earn me a spot in 3Channels blog.



*quick click away if messy disorganized vehicles cause your OCD to kick in, as obviously I don't suffer from that particular problem*






Explanation - pink swimming bag with swim stuff like sunscreen, Katie's diaper bag, a towel from said swimming, a box for the pool toys (which you thankfully can not see here), a Karate bo, a bible from church that must not have made it inside (okay it stays in the van so we always have it), water bottles from the pool, a wiffle ball from the baseball going days, a capri sun pouch (from when we went to karate), umbrella, paper from the summer camp science classes, pencils, cup from dinner out recently...

Please tell me I'm not the only one whose van looks like this! LOL It's not nearly so bad at the moment, but only because I cleaned it out when we went to my parents for the week. Sometimes though, I feel like we LIVE in that van we're on the go so much.

Just trust me when I say, I spared you from MORE of the same! Exactly the same, I think he took 5 photos of the mess on the floor.

Wordless Wednesday

This is what Summer is all about

We've been on vacation

Sorry for not posting much this week...like at all. We've been on vacation at Grandma's house. We dropped JM off at summer camp on Father's Day, and came back to Grandma's for a few fun filled days with my Mom, my sister, and her kids.

We're so incredibly tired. Worn out exhausted...but the kids have had fun.

I've also been checking stalking the camp's website for updated photos of my kid. So far this week, JM has been camping without a tent and fought a water balloon battle using cardboard "subs" they designed as a shield.

He has been in precisely 6 photos out of over 500-600, there are 227 BOYS from grades 2-10 at this camp. Of those 6 photos, only 3 were non-posed...and all were in the lake where he was swimming! LOL

He is signed up for various "skills" that he will go through and learn while there each day, 3 hours each morning with alternating skills on each day.

Canoeing, Swimming lessons, Target Sports (archery and riflery), crafts, rocketry (he'll build and shoot a model rocket), and geocaching.

He's also probably playing A LOT of 4-square games.

I miss my son. I really do. But I also know that he is having a truly AWESOME time!!!

What has your summer looked like so far?

Mine? Well, lets just say that I'm finding a new meaning to the word busy. This week was interesting, as were the past 2 weeks...and oh yeah those before that. If you are one of the people who count the summer months as June, July, and August, then here I am, not even through June 15th.

2 kids have completed swimming lessons for this summer.
1 kid has done 2 summer camps at the science museum.
1 baseball team party down.
1 set of grandparents have visited.
2008-2009 yearbook is finally DONE
summer sessions have been booking up left and right
3 kids, and one adult, have been swimming for "fun" 6 times.
1 photography exam taken, and hopefully I will be certified by this time next week. If not, then please don't hold it against me.

Still left? Actually submit that yearbook. Tag summer camp clothes for 1 kid and pack him up...he leaves in about a week!!! Go to the zoo. Meet friends for swimming....multiple times. 1 more team party. Fall sports signups. Work on all that curriculum where we start the school year in the summer...

and, oh yeah, BLOG about it.

I saw something today that I'm going to post about, and why I'm going to be more diligent about watermarking my photos.

My life. It's too busy. Haven't I said that many times before? Yeah? thought so.

1 year

I remember it clearly because I was "counting down the day" and unsure how we would survive or react.

Monday June 9, 2008 was the day we had told the satellite company to turn off our "connection" to their system. It was the day we moved to only what we could pick up with rabbit ears.

Y'all...we bought an HDTV LCD television in April of 08. Then, less than 2 months later I had killed the connection to television shows on cable. That TV, while we love it now, at the time could have had a sign put up on it that said, "Stupid Tax."

If you don't know what Stupid Tax is, please please go visit DaveRamsey.com. ;)

We do not consider ourselves very weird at all, but perhaps we are. We are loving life without cable television. It's not life without TV though. We still watch shows and movies. We just rent movies/shows/dvds through Netflix OR we stream things through the internet.

As we're a slightly "geeky" family, and as such had more computers than people (not really but not far off either), we now have a dedicated "dinosaur" of a computer that is connected to our TV and directly to our HIGH SPEED cable internet (oh how we dream of a T1 connection or our old really fast DSL). Nothing is on the computer anymore, it's a glorified terminal to the internet. It doesn't really have as much RAM as we'd like, so things are not perfectly smooth...but oh...all the shows you can see!!! Well, they do have commercials, but only 1 or 2 every commercial break period.

Except it seems more people are doing this so less and less are free, and more and more sites have fees associated with them...fees like $5/month. Netflix has instant play shows, and LOTS of them...shows like Engineering an Empire on PBS (yeah...we're a tad weird, but I have already admitted to being a geeky household).

I foresee a future though where instead of cable we're streaming tv shows, movies, news, etc. and watching on the tv. We'll have to pay for the service, but I predict that we'll be paying on a per site basis...so this household would pay for Sci-Fi and CBS most likely and leave the Golf channel alone. Oh, we'll have to pay for the NASA channel as well I guess as the boys seems to love it for some odd reason.

This was all part of a self-reflection on being wasteful with resources. We didn't really USE the cable television, we didn't get the $55+ enjoyment out of it every month, so why have it? It also started something in our lives where we were cleaning out all the unnecessary things, simplifying things somewhat...and it was all part of that quest for "finding family time" with each other doing things the old fashioned way...you know, not connected to electronic things 24/7.

100,000

Our van recently rolled over that milestone. 100,000 miles. We bought it new (bad Dave Ramsey followers), but we had our reasons. I remember when we bought the van thinking of how long it would take to get to 100,000. Yet, here we are. I remember where I was THEN when we bought it, and where we are now...the changes our lives have seen.

We have moved 2 times. So it's been registered to 3 different homes.

Visited Walt Disney World 4 times as a family, and 1 time on an Anniversary Trip.

We did the entire adoption and added Katie to our family.

I started my business after bought the van.

It has moved multiple pieces of furniture to different locations.

We've driven it to Hilton Head Island multiple times.

We've driven it over the TN/NC border in the mountains.

We've taken it to camping trips.

We've spent many hours sitting in it waiting...for classes to be out, ballgames to over, sessions to be done, shopping to be completed...

and then I think...I wonder what the next 100,000 miles will hold for us? Will we make it another 100,000 in our van?

Summer is here

can you believe it?! I sure can't, but then again I'm so incredibly busy with juggling the 3 kids, homeschooling, the yearbook, the photography, the gearing up for all things for the summer fun, trips, and oh yeah...we started school back. Not to mention the household chores, and I started wondering if I truly am a little insane to try to do all that at one time.

I sat down the other day and listed out all that I'm responsible for, and I finally decided that it would be rather nice to have about 5 clones of me. Yeah, that might work.

Over Memorial Day weekend we took the kiddos to visit Grandparents and cousins and Aunts and Uncles and "hopefully one day in future" Aunts...and managed to work in a trip to Splash Country. It was the first waterpark for all of the kids, and it was a HUGE hit. A big huge major hit especially with JM.

The favorite waterslide.


Samuel on the lazy river with his cousin.


JM on the lazy river.


Katie does NOT like the wave pool at all. "Is too wha-owd."


Cousins together and happy...they love each other so much. 3.5 months apart, and they will give you the funniest look if you ask if they are related. I swear they looks at you like you are dumb for not recognizing that they are cousins. I mean, in their eyes they look just alike...both short. LOL

Photos from last weekend

Katie LOVES to float around the pool.


JM was not allowed in the pool on this day (long story for another time), and he wasn't thrilled about it. But he survived. Notice the RAIN drops in this photo? How cool!

Then...the entire series of Samuel jumping....he didn't stop and he LOVED every minute of playing in the pool.










Okay, so this is a COOL series right? Only you wonder how in the heck did I click the shutter that many times?! I didn't. I pushed it once and held it down until the camera stopped, or Samuel was in the water. On most cameras you have a "burst" mode as an option in "shutter drive" - single shot is one box, the stop watch is the self-timer, and then there is another option of MULTIPLE boxes stacked on top of each other. That is burst mode, and the number of frames per second is totally dependent on your particular camera. My sister's new point and shoot will do about 3-5, the 30d that I was shooting with will do 7-9. The 5d? something like 3 if I'm lucky.

Each camera is designed for a different purpose. This is why I can't recommend a particular dSLR or camera to any one person without knowing what they want the camera for. It's just...well, so dependent on how you will be shooting. KWIM?

When do I use burst mode? Well, mostly during sporting events (or swimming). I've used it to capture my younger brother doing his crazy dives off the diving board (lots of fun), I use it during baseball games to capture the hitting of the ball (or the entire swing), and I've used it to capture my boys sliding on the slip and slide (will re-do that later this summer as well).

I do NOT use burst mode to capture portraits. It's overkill. It's for capturing the motion of actions. It ends up making a GREAT "flip" movie book, or a storyboard. ;)


NOW....for the photoshop portion. ;) Compare these two versions of the same photo. One is "batch processed" with my basic edits, the other I edited fully.



and before I get any criticisms about no one being right next to Katie....my BIL is a lifeguard and was in the pool and within quick reach of her at all times. Of the 3 kids in the pool, there were 8 adults around the pool. ;) 1 big kid sulking and wanting a chance to jump in, and one 3 year old who was REFUSING to even get on the steps.

3 Things

Okay, so you remember my big huge idea concerning a day of rest and my lightbulb moment. Yeah, sometimes it takes me a little bit. We're still going strong with that 24 hours thing, and loving it.

However, well, the other 6 days of the week are still just too busy and I've been struggling with THAT this year. 2008 was the day of rest, 2009 is the 6 days of the week are just too busy! I'm starting to see a pattern here - my life is BUSY. ;)

So, one day I was chatting with my sister (oooh, how we did not get along that great growing up but now, in the past year or so we chat at least once a week if not daily...and I LOOOOVE it). Anyway, I was complaining to her that my life is just too busy. I try to not overschedule things, but it happens anyway. She was agreeing, and then she said something.

"I try to not schedule more than 3 things to do in a single day."

Huh? What did you say? 3 things MAX in a day? What do you mean? It turns out that Sis has a friend who was reading a self-help book that recommended you only schedule 3 things max in a day (well I guess besides cooking, dishes, etc.). ;) That invariably something would come up and need to be added to that day, but trying to keep it to no more than 3 things would help free you up.

LIGHTBULB MOMENT!!!!

But then, it got better. You know those BIG plans we always get involved in (well I do at least), you know like hosting a baby shower for a friend that you know through another friend, like say through monthly Bunco nights? Yes? Well, you are asked to help host, and it's on a date that you don't currently have 3 things scheduled...GREAT you can help. But can you REALLY? What else is needed to help host? Invitations mailed out 6 weeks prior (or however earlier?)...look at your calendar THEN and see if you do have time to devote to picking out, creating, addressing, and mailing invites? Is it booked solid with other commitments? Yes? Then you do NOT have time to help host, it would stress you out too much.

LIGHTBULB MOMENT #2!!!!

I always, always, always forget about the prepping stages of things. ALWAYS.

Now, I'm working on not being so busy and I recognized something important. I have been trying to put all sorts of therapy appointments, doctor appointments, etc. on days we were already leaving the house. Well, it's no wonder I got so stressed on those days as I had 5 things scheduled on some days. Phew. I started moving things around as best as I could and things are going better. Still not great, but better.

Just a hint, I'm counting FAMILY TIME as a scheduled event now. It doesn't necessarily happen daily, but I try to get time in for playing with my kids. They are only this little once. If I have days where I need to do MAJOR chores, then those get scheduled into the "daily plan" as events. If I have a project with the school to do, it gets scheduled. I schedule specific days for "business" work.

I'm still busy, but I'm finding that more often I am less stressed because I have my life more under control...well at least it's an illusion of control. ;)

It's a bleh kind of day

too much left on my to-do list, enough time to tackle a few projects...but no motivation. Why is that?

I feel like my life is an endless cycle of laundry these days. Start a load, "re-boot" the load, fold that load, and put it away....and always...ALWAYS there is a load right behind it!

We moved Katie into a twin bed, installed ceiling fans, and realized Samuel's bunk beds MUST go. After a craiglist listing, they are sold and Samuel now has a twin bed...without a headboard for the moment.

I've been falling behind in my exercise. No big surprise. But I feel so much better when I've been consistent with it...probably need a better motivation. Dh has his, he watches 24 season episodes while doing his exercise.

It has rained entirely TOO much lately. Between that and "piggie flu" baseball games are having trouble getting made up. Thus, 2 this week and 5 next week. I feel like in between laundry loads I'm living at the ballfield.

I'm in the "creative" stage where my work stinks. It stinks to be here. I know it's a cycle, and it typically means I'm "growing" but dang...it's hard to look at stuff and think "I don't like that at all!"

School stuff for next year is arriving. Yippee. I think.

I can't believe June is almost here.

I'm not a very patient person, and waiting on decisions from other people is hard. It's hard not to push, or anything. HARD.

Less than a month from now I will leave my oldest child at a summer camp. His first spend the night camp. ACK!


It seems to me that people have vast potential. Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don't. They sit in front of the T.V. and treat life as if it goes on forever. - Philip Adams

I want some of that confidence.


Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. - Theodore Roosevelt

Ah...that's much more appropriate for my life...at least I feel like it is.

Keep in mind this daily notion: There are no ordinary moments. - Dan Millman


How better to celebrate ordinary moments than to bake cupcakes for NO reason. Yes, I was feeling particularly domesticated this past weekend, probably brought on by the forced indoors due to piggie flu and rain combination (we are healthy but the rest of county has had a few cases and as a result the kids activities were cancelled...then it rained meaning we were forced to enjoy one another's company for 4 days straight).



The boys quickly ate their cupcakes and went on their merry way, with only the paper left behind. Katie? Oh she proceeded to thoroughly enjoy her cupcakes (mini ones of course), and ate only the frosting off the top. She knew what was best about them and decided to satisfy herself with only the best part, as that was all she needed.

Someone is speaking to me.

My own experience has taught me this: If you wait for the perfect moment when all is safe and assured it may never arrive. Mountains will not be climbed, races won or lasting happiness achieved. - Maurice Chevalier

Sometimes, just sometimes, I feel like someone is speaking to me...most of the time through Dave.

I have read or heard variations on this same theme for the past 2 weeks, just about daily. Very interesting....very interesting indeed....

see what I mean...

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objects must first be overcome. - Samuel Johnson

Live your life so that your children can tell their children that you not only stand for something wonderful – you acted on it. - Dan Zadra - Okay so this one doesn't quite fit as well as the others...

A good weekend

a bit full, but good.

2 baseball games, ice cream treat out with the kids, sprinkler playing weather, swinging on the playset with full belly giggles, bicycle riding, playing made up games with the neighborhood kids, playing games with the family around the breakfast table, watching a television show as a family, and a trip to the zoo.

It was declared a GOOD weekend by all.







zoo photos and such will be posted at a later date...I'm still worn out from the weekend!

Easter Photos - 1 week late...of course!

3 things I think of when I see these...

1 - wow that's some BRIGHT sunshine
2 - new sod has not grown together yet...and I so can not wait for the grass to 'green' up
3 - Look at all that dirt! (BTW Kia, that's the dirt the worms do NOT like...and I finally saw one this week when I moves some of that sod around to create a flower bed on top of that hard as a rock reddish-orange dirt)

Summer Camp

Back in January I read a blog where the author was talking about having to sign up her son for summer camp, and I thought that it was EARLY. Turns out, you have to start signing up in January as the spots fill up quickly. Who knew.

So, I started researching summer camps for both cost, program, and location. There are so many choices, but I knew that I wanted to send JM to camp this year. I looked and looked and looked, and thought about asking friends but the only camps friends had gone to were not the kind I was looking for except for one friend who sent her twins to 8 weeks of summer camp last summer and I knew I was not quite ready for that.

I found it, and I hope it's going to be a good experience. It's almost 2 weeks of spend the night camp. While it's far from us, it's quite close to extended family (my grandparents, my parents, my aunts and uncles and cousins, and even some friends are all within 1.5 hours and some are less than 30 minutes away). It's run by a group Dh and I feel good about.

Yet, I'm nervous. I'm apprehensive. I'm worried about my "baby" who is almost bigger than I am. He's excited. He's thrilled to be going. He's ready to leave TOMORROW! Me? I'm worried about minor things, like will he fit in? Will he make friends? There are no electronics at all at the camp, and they play lots of sports (it's an all boys camp)....so what will our little "geek in training" talk about to the other kids?

I have to think this is NORMAL parental fears. But I know this experience is going to be awesome for him. He's an independent soul. He probably won't even miss me at all. It's for less time than our trip to China was, and by the sounds of things he's going to be much busier than he was during our trip to China.

So...anyone else out there planning on anything fun this summer you've already had to plan?

We've also signed up Samuel for his "camp" which is 1 week of day camp. I've thought about seeing if I could get Katie in the mother's day out program camp. We need to set up camping reservations, and check into renting a camper instead of making myself sleep in a tent again. ;) Then we have friends coming to visit (hopefully). Yes, summer is going to be just as busy as previous years!

What's in a name?

One really cute thing that has been discussed an nauseam in our home is the fact that MULTIPLE people can have the same name. This all started with a visit to my friend of the buttercup field. See, she has a daughter from China as well. Katie calls her "Wee-wee" which is sort of close if you know her actual name. So, one day I'm blog hopping and land on Mommy24Treasures page with her daughter Caitlyn (I think that's how she spells it). Katie jumps up and down with excitement and says, "Wee-wee!!!!" I gently break the news to her that it is NOT her friend but rather a little girl named Caitlyn. Katie juts out her chin, crosses her arms and says, "No. I Katie!" I explain that yes, she IS Katie but this little girl has the SAME name and that's really special. Katie insists that the little girl on that blog can NOT be her NAME because SHE owns Katie. She's rather emphatic about it too.

I was trying hard not to giggle, but it reminded me so much of a conversation I had with JM when he was really young. It was about favorite colors. It seems one day during swimming lessons the lifeguards were talking to the kids on the side of the pool waiting for their turn about favorite colors (these were all 3 and 4 year olds). Of the few kids on the side of the pool they all had different favorite colors. JM got in the van and told me that his favorite color was green (we went through a whole time period where he had to tell me this daily), that his friend B's favorite color was BLUE, and the lifeguard's favorite color was RED. He asked me what my favorite color was, and I told him that it was PURPLE. All was "well" in his ordered little world until Daddy came home and he asked Daddy what his favorite color was. Daddy replied, "It's RED." JM told him that it could not be RED because that was the lifeguard's favorite color. I believe that conversation lasted for a good 30 minutes, with JM never budging on his stance that multiple people could have the same favorite color.

Need I say that Katie claiming HER name as her own lasted a good 30 minutes? After feeling like I was banging my head against a brick wall, I chose to do what we did with JM and the favorite colors....I changed the subject and hoped that the next time we discussed the whole "name" thing that Katie will have matured to the point of understanding that multiple people can have the same name.

9 months without cable

Well, I thought it was time to update everyone on where we stood with our trial of "no cable or satellite" in the house. It's now been 9 months and honestly we are watching fewer actual shows that are still being shown. Those we are watching, well, we just see them a little slower than everyone else. ;) We are watching MacGyver (through DVD), Battlestar Galactica (thank you SciFi!), Stargate Atlantis (again SciFi), and Amazing Race. 4 shows people...yet we really don't seem to have any more TIME. Where has all that time gone?

In the past 9 months we have seen a huge leap in the streaming technology. We've also determined that streaming wirelessly with an older laptop is not the best idea either. Hooked directly into the network with a dedicated computer seems to give us a pretty good experience.

So, what exactly do we watch and how? Also, what else have we done to add to our need for TV. What specific things have we missed about not having cable?

1. We recently joined Netflix. Not because we could get unlimited movies delivered to our door, but honestly, because they offered the "Instant Play" feature for MANY movies and television shows (yes, most are older, but still we like watching reruns of many of our favorite shows). Which shows in particular do they have? Mythbusters, Sliders, Dr. Who (original), SeaQuest, Extreme Engineering, and so forth to name a few. They have CSI, CSI Miami, CSI New York, Numb3rs, and I believe NCIS and The Unit as well. We found quite a few family favorites from PBS on there, and many from the History Channel that the boys enjoy watching.

These are from NETFLIX people, so no commercials. :)

2. Did you know HGTV has ONLINE shows as well? SCORE for Me!!!! Full episodes of some of my favorites, and better yet...it streams continuously that ONE show. So, instead of moving into the next show as it does on TV, it moves into the next episode of that show. Love the Designed to Sell series...

3. Sci-Fi channel has our favorite shows on their full episodes list. These are currently Battlestar Galactica (it runs about 1 week "slow" and it's just about over), Stargate Atlantis (we're in the last season on this one), and Eureka (not playing right now).

4. Amazing Race is streamed online after the final showing in the US, meaning right after (or as it plays as I've not tested it) the Pacific time zone sees it, we get it streamed online. We typically save it for a night the boys can watch with us.

The boys? Well, they have not seen television shows designed for them since we cut the cable. No Disney Channel, no Nickelodeon, no Cartoon Network, etc. We have not shown them the Netflix instant play stuff yet, but probably will soon.

What have we missed? Well, we have missed certain things...like watching the Inauguration real time without having to tweak the antenna. Superbowl was a little noisy. Baseball's Homerun Derby was not shown on networks. That's the sum total of the things we've "missed" about not having Cable/Satellite hooked up. 3 things...in 9 months? Dh would like to go on the record that he does sometime miss the "channel surfing" aspect of having cable.



More Disney this week...more photography stuff...and homeschooling ramblings.

SNOW!!!!!!!

It actually snowed here! Of course, being true to where we live I think we might be able to wear sundresses a week after the "big snowfall"








So, those of you in the North...you know where this is considered a dusting. Know that they canceled CHURCH for this, had it be a weekday then school and non-essential working people in gov't offices would have been told not to come in. Pay particular attention to the ROADS. Yeah. It had been in the 60s less than 48 hours prior.

as this is my LIFE we now know WHY I was shocked when Kia mentioned netting to hold the snow back...

Life is kicking my rear!

Who else feels like it's full steam ahead lately? I've not slowed down, the kids have not slowed down, and the house? well, it's taking the entire family to stay on top of the daily maintenance. Either that or some VERY long chats with friends on the phone to keep me on task and off the computer. ;)

But I wanted to preserve a few "cute moments" in recent history for our family.

From Katie, when I put her down for a nap in her crib.

"Help! Hey-yelp! I need....nooodles!"

That goes along with me painting her fingernails pink.

"Momma wan' PAY-aink."

Yes, internet peeps, pink is now fully a two syllable word in our house. ;)

Dh and I were watching the Amazing Race (internet streaming is still going great here), and the kids like to sneak and watch the shows with us. In our old house it was EASY for them to sneak and watch them as they'd sit in the hall and peer off the loft into the great room and watch. This house? it's not that easy. We were in the game room with the door shut (Samuel LOVES the Amazing Race). We got to the part where the cheese was rolling down the hill, and we were rolling with laughter as well. A few minutes later we heard a noise outside the door. I looked at Dh and he looked at me, we kept the show on and I got up and yanked open the door. Samuel basically "fell into the room" and he said, "I can still hear it through the door!" Yeah kid, you probably could with your ear plastered up against the door!