Springfall

April 26, 2015April 26, 20157 Comments

springfall Last week, I got a great picture of my son in motion. The kids were all outside; I was busy snapping pictures of them in the magnolia tree they’d swarmed. Bubbles in particular loves climbing trees, so it was no surprise to see him in it, but the others spent almost as much time in it as he did.

Eventually, Miss Tadpole and Thumper started posing for the pictures, and I got a couple of really nice shots of them. Then Cricket joined in the fun. Not to be outdone, Bubbles joined them in all his silliness.

He spent five minutes horsing around in various states of upside-downness, but at last, his shoe gave way, and down he went. Unfortunately, my shutter finger wasn’t quick enough to catch his shoe as it followed him to the ground (with a brief layover atop his head).

It wasn’t the first time he’d slipped out of a tree that afternoon, and it wasn’t the last, but it was definitely the funniest. What can I say? He inherited his butterfingers from me. 🙂

Photo Friday throwback: Wedding!

April 24, 2015April 24, 20157 Comments

DSCN1153 So since I recounted the story of my first date with Seymour and the story of our engagement the last two weeks, I thought I’d recount the tale of our wedding today. That was when I discovered that I’d already recounted it once before, and in a much more entertaining fashion than I could possibly come up with today, thanks to being brain-dead after staying up way too late last night (thanks, insomnia).

To read what I wrote about our wedding for the 2012 October Memoir and Backstory Blog Challenge, go here. 🙂

I also discovered, from the same blog challenge, a post wherein I recounted the story of our first date. I skimmed the post, and I actually liked the older post even better than the one I shared two weeks ago. See? This is the sort of thing I mean when I say I can’t remember squat.

Anyway, this week’s throwback photo is a favorite from our wedding reception. That’s the best man holding the flower girl while being attacked by the ring bearer. Lots of great pictures from that night; lots of great memories.

Have a great weekend, everybody, and don’t forget to stop by Charnele’s blog and see what she’s thinking about this fabulous Friday!

Photo Friday: Engaging!

April 17, 2015April 17, 20151 Comment

After last week’s throwback post about my first date with Seymour, I thought I’d share a little about our engagement. It, too, is a fun story, and one I love telling. 🙂

Greg&Me Seymour proposed on December 23, 2008, which happened to be my grandpa and step-grandma’s fifth wedding anniversary. He had just died three months prior, so it was rather a sad day for her. But not for me – I was anxiously awaiting the end of the day so I could get all gussied up for the ROTC military ball in a neighboring town.

I got my hair done after work, then hurried home to put on my beautiful black formal dress (complete with black gloves, pink wrap, and pretty tiara). When I came downstairs looking all pretty (and feeling it, too), Seymour gave me a beautiful corsage of purple carnations and orchids. Then we left for the ball at the Pipac Centre (fancy schmancy, if you didn’t know).

When we arrived, there were all of six cars in the parking lot. Seymour looked around and said, “That’s not right; there should be fifty or sixty cars here.” He parked the truck and said, “You stay here and I’ll go see what’s going on.”

He came back a few minutes later. “I have some really, really good news: behind the cut!

Afloat

April 11, 2015April 10, 20156 Comments

slide As I’ve mentioned before, Thumper doesn’t know how to be still. The kid is always moving, even when he’s asleep.

What I wouldn’t give to have that kind of energy.

However, his inability to sit still has come in quite handy for this week’s photo challenge. Because he is completely unable to sit still, I was able to catch him floating off the slide one day at the park. I have no idea how I did it (though I’m pretty sure it involved burst shooting), but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

Maybe the reason Thumper can’t sit still is because he’s such a happy little guy that all that joy physically lifts him up? Of course, if that’s the case, then maybe we’ll have to rechristen him Bubbles and find a new nickname for his big brother… 😀

Photo Friday: Swept off my feet

April 10, 201511 Comments

Today’s throwback is a funny story. Well, I find it funny. I didn’t at the time, of course, but time has a way of changing how you feel about things.

Anyway.

younglove

“As a girl, I dreamed of being swept off my feet by my one true love. And at the age of 24, it finally happened…and he’s never let me forget it.” That’s what it says on my bio page. And it’s completely, one hundred percent, absotively posilutely true.

Back in 2008, my husband and I had our first date (thanks to coincidence and Yahoo! Personals). We met at a nice public place (the local pizza joint) for supper, where I arrived fifteen minutes early and spent the next ten minutes anxiously checking my watch and the door. Seymour walked in about five minutes early and seemed surprised to see me waiting.

We sat down and…

Blur

April 6, 2015Leave a comment

This week’s photo challenge theme is blur. When taking pictures of kids (or at least, when taking pictures of my kids), I seem to end up with quite a few blurry pictures. Some of them are by design, but most aren’t. Thumper in particular never stops moving, so I love my cameras’ burst modes. In addition to being just plain fun, they allow me to capture great pictures of my little Energizer bunny that aren’t blurry.

blur

This picture, though, was blurry by design and features a cute moment with Miss Tadpole and Cricket. The Easter Bunny was kind enough to leave him a gift at my aunt’s house, and Miss T. thought it would be funny to look at him through the other end of his adorable binoculars. She was right – everyone got a kick out of it, including Cricket.

I hope you all had a fantastic Easter!

Photo Friday throwback: The late edition

April 4, 20154 Comments

This weekend, man. Talk about busy! I meant to share this last night when I got back from the last fish fry of 2015, but I was so tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

Anyway, since it’s Easter weekend, this week’s throwback photo is Easter-themed. It was taken on Easter Sunday in 1991 at my aunt’s house, right after my sister, my cousin, and I had finished our Easter egg hunt. My aunt must have been the one who took this picture because my grandparents and my mom are all sitting on the steps with us (along with my cousin’s grandpa). My mom and my grandpa were huge photography buffs, as is my aunt, so family get-togethers when I was growing up involved many, many pictures. And if we were getting together with my great-aunt and her family? More cameras.

You can see where I get my shutterbug-ism from. 🙂

Did you hunt Easter eggs when you were a kid?

Photo 365 #232

March 27, 20154 Comments

Last night, Seymour and Bubbles spent the remaining light of day playing catch out in the yard. Cricket, not one to be left behind, was desperate to go outside and join them. I snapped this as he was hurrying through getting his shoes and coat on. He was so excited that I had to be quick with the camera if I wanted to capture even a bit of his joy.

I imagine I might look a bit like this come five o’clock this evening… 🙂

Photo 365 #229

March 24, 20158 Comments

2015-03-22 14.09.16 We play cards in our family. Like, a lot. It’s kind of our family pastime. And we start ’em young.

Well, not that young, really – I think both Miss Tadpole and Bubbles were in school before we taught them any card games. But when Grandpa and Grandma were up over the weekend, Cricket and Thumper wanted in on the action, too.

They hate being left out.

It started off with Cricket teaming up with his aunt. That went okay, until Thumper decided that he wanted to play, too. He teamed up with Grandpa, but wasn’t satisfied with letting Grandpa hold the cards. We gave him a couple cards of his own to hold, but that actually made matters worse. I finally managed to decipher the sobbing squeals – he wanted all the cards.

At that point, we decided it was naptime. That really set him off.

But someday, they won’t be too little to play cards. Someday, they’ll learn how to play Up and Down the River with us, and then it’ll get really interesting (Miss Tadpole and Bubbles make it interesting already). It’ll be nice when, someday, family game night includes our entire family.

And maybe by that point, I’ll have figured out how to win. 😉

Do you have any family pastimes or traditions like family game night? What are they? Shout ’em out in the comments!

Photo 365 #228

March 23, 2015Leave a comment

Yesterday was a great day. I hung out with family, I ate great food, I watched Buffy, I wrote. A lot. Well, more than I have been lately, at any rate.

And then last night, after suffering through the UNI defeat vicariously through Seymour, I was rudely awakened about 2:30 a.m. by the crash of thunder. Jagged streaks of lightning ripped apart the sky outside my window as the wind howled in agony. Something clicked and clacked against the window, and I groaned.

2015-03-23 08.11.02

When I awoke this morning, these pretty little pellets were all over the place. School delayed two hours to give the road crews a chance to clear the highways. But I still had to venture out on time this morning, braving the ice-slicked roads to get to work.

Luckily, the road we live on was the worst. Once I hit the east-west road that takes me the majority of the way to work, the roads were much less slick. I’m grateful that we haven’t had more ice this year, and I hope we won’t have any more storms like the one we had last night until it’s warm enough that the rain stays liquid.