Photo 365 #163

January 17, 20153 Comments

I’m feeling a bit nostalgic today. I’m copying some of Seymour’s CDs onto my computer for my later listening pleasure, and so many of the songs are ones I listened to growing up. He’s got albums by Reba McIntyre and Alan Jackson, Diamond Rio and Shenandoah, Alabama and Tanya Tucker, and a five-disc set of classic Disney tunes…

I’m having a ton of fun listening to them all as they copy; it’s like taking a walk down memory lane with a group of old friends:

I found these while I was going through my filing cabinet this afternoon. (Gotta do something while I wait for CDs to rip.) If you’re like me, you grew up before cell phones were ubiquitous and did your own fair share of note-passing. I’ve got tins of them left over from high school, and every now and then I dig them out and look through them again.

To discourage unintended viewing, we sometimes wrote them like this:

Believe it or not, I can still read this. The key is long since gone, but this was the code we used most often, so even after fifteen years, I can still tell you what it says. (Spoiler alert: It was about a boy.)

Were you a note-passer in school? Did you ever get caught?

Bonus picture!

January 16, 20155 Comments

Because apparently yesterday’s banana shot went up a month ago, have a bonus picture of some kitties:

kitties

My memory kinda sucks. Apologies. On the bright side, you get an pretty awesome cat picture, and who doesn’t love cat pictures? No one, that’s who. Everyone loves cats.

Everyone. 🙂

Photo 365 #162

January 16, 20156 Comments

Have I mentioned lately that I’m tired of winter? Cuz I totally am. We seem to be getting the short end of the winter stick this year – all the sub-freezing temps, but none of the pretty, pretty snow.

Now, of course, it feels like March outside because the temperatures have rebounded from somewhere in the -10°F range to the mid-30’s, and it’s glorious. But, as one of my awesome friends said yesterday, “I want it to be March in March.”

March it ain’t, at least not yet.

tractormama

But in honor of the warmer temperatures, I thought I’d share a picture from a warmer time of year. Here’s me driving a tractor for the first time last summer. We lost some trees in one of the many storms that plagued our area last year, and Seymour and I spent a good portion of this particular afternoon cleaning one of them up. Driving a tractor was an interesting experience – I’ve driven riding lawn mowers many times, but it’s been ages since I did it last, and this is quite a bit bigger. Still, it was a good day.

I can’t wait for more good days on the farm this summer. What are you looking forward to this year?

Photo 365 #161

January 15, 2015January 16, 20152 Comments

We have a banana fiend in our midst.

bananas

There’s nothing Mr. Thumper would like better than a heaping big bowl of bananas, and we have a whole bunch ripening on top of our fridge. When told they were for banana bread, he decided that would be an acceptable substitute.

But he wanted it right. now. You know, as we were walking out the door for the day.

*sigh* Threenagers. 🙂

Photo 365 #160

January 14, 20154 Comments

Kids are only kids once. Here are some of my favorite kid-related stories and things I will miss about them as they get older.

misst Miss Tadpole

Several years ago, we were down at Seymour’s parents’ house helping set up for a garage sale. Bubbles and Miss T. were in the house watching The Lion King while I fixed dinner and Seymour and his ma were out in the garage. As I was serving the kids, they asked me if I’d seen the movie before. I said, “Yep. This movie came out when I was a kid.”

Miss Tadpole: “Wow, that’s an old movie.”
Bubbles: “Yeah, really old.”
Miss Tadpole: “So…why is it in color?”
Me: “What?”
Miss Tadpole: “Well, I thought old movies were…

Photo 365 #159

January 13, 20156 Comments

IMG_20140228_143517 Winter, in all its monochrome glory, is now firmly entrenched in my backyard. Since my current view is something like the image to the left, I find myself longing for a bit of color.

What? There’s color in that there picture? Well of course there is! It’s just that it’s the color cast upon an ocean of snow by a setting sun, and it’s mostly blue. And white. And some sort of odd mixture of the two. It’s monochrome. And while it’s beautiful in its own way, it’s also boring.

I want color! Color that pops off the page, or better yet, color that pops out of the dreary winter landscape. I want color that makes my eyes sing and my heart soar, color that is so deep and rich and vibrant that it’s practically alive.

I’ve been trying to organize the scads of pictures that live on my computer and in so doing, I ran across these pretty, pretty pictures that I took last summer:

Photo 365 #158

January 12, 20153 Comments

We had our final family Christmas get-together last night with my sister and her family. At the end of the evening, we were talking about pictures and the respective hundreds that we have on our phones. Bubbles walked up and said, “Mom? Can you take my picture?”

bubbles

I was pretty happy with how this one turned out, but a little sad, too. He used to ask me to take his picture when he was little, and then he’d immediately want to see it. If I was using my digital camera, it worked fine, but he just couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t immediately show him the ones I took with my film camera. Actually, he still doesn’t get it, but anyway.

Cricket and Thumper used to do the same thing, but now when I try to take their pictures, Thumper won’t sit/stand still and Cricket says, “No, Mom – don’t take my picture.”

Guess this means I’m gonna have to improve my stealth skills. 🙂

Photo 365 #157

January 11, 2015January 10, 20154 Comments

Yesterday Miss Tadpole decided to take the boys outside to play in the snow. Thumper was all excited to bundle up, head outside, and build a snowman.

That lasted all of about five minutes. Then the cold got to him and the screaming began. At least I got some nice cuddle time while he warmed up under a pile of blankets.

Cricket, on the other hand, didn’t start screaming till he was forced to come inside. He wasn’t ready to be done playing, but he wasn’t listening, either, so in he came.

This weekend has given us the warmest temps we’ve had in quite a while – mid-twenties above zero! – but there’s a breeze, and it’s knocked the wind chill down well below zero. Still, at least it’s better than the last week.

Photo 365 #156

January 10, 20154 Comments

It’s been a long day already, and it’s not even noon yet.

“But Mom, I just wanna watch Dungeons and Dragons!”

Thumper was up bright and early at 6:30 a.m., which was shortly after Seymour woke up for work. Naturally, then, I was also awake bright and early, first chatting with Seymour before he left for the day, and then snuggling with my favorite little bunny.

The rest of the morning has been spent supervising a grumpy Bubbles, who’s doing penance for letting a shed door get torn off by the wind the other night. If things keep on this way, I’m gonna need a stiff drink by the end of the day.

How are you spending your weekend?

Photo 365 #155

January 9, 2015January 9, 20154 Comments

Looky what I found in my mail the other night!

This picture doesn’t do justice to the vibrant colors of what will soon be in a frame gracing my office wall. It’s a signed print I won from Aädenian Ink, and it’s signed by the artist, Myka Jelina! I was pretty dang excited to finally get my hands on it, and now I can’t wait for my office to be done so that I can hang this beauty up.

After all, every fantasy author should have a little bit of fantasy in their writing space, right? Right. 😀