Family

I'm laying in bed on the last night of our annual family get together. We've worked up a sweat being silly competitive fools in the 2nd annual amazing race, laughed till we cried playing silly new and old games, eaten more than anyone ever should, turned into cutthroat militia in a capture the flag game that, this year, included land mines and trip wires, and had an 11 act talent show that included skits and songs and classic video game re-enactments and much more.
It's been epic.
And I have enjoyed it so much.
I love my patchwork quilt of a family.
I hate that we have to wait a year to do this again...
But we all might need a year to recover!
And we definitely need a year to get our talent ready for 2012!!!

Fear. Despair. Panic. Whatev.

Yeah...so my computer won't start. As in
It
Won't
Turn
On.
As in I can't access, much less edit, any files.
You'd think I'd be like in a horrified panic right now, gnashing of teeth, wailing, wringing my hands and such.
Eh.
I'm not that worked up(yet).
However, if it weren't for my miraculous apple devices, i'd lose my mind. I can still blog, check Facebook, check emails, etsy... The only thing I can't do is access photos and edit. So basically my computer's death is saving me from working. Fortunately this is okay for now because I've had only a handful of shoots lately. It's gonna get ugly quick though. So what does one do with a sick computer? Any suggestions? Is the geek squad the way to go or???
Help. Maybe if I have a plan before the true horror of this situation hits me, the crash landing into panicville will be a little less... Panicked.
Any computer repair advice...?

Sent from my iPhone

Aw, young love...

This is Grant and Ellie.
Grant calls Ellie his girlfriend.
Ellie is unaware of this label.
Grant and Ellie had a playdate earlier this week. Grant nearly died of happiness. Ellie enjoyed it quite a bit as well. And I was filled with the joy of a mother who has finally found a few hours of entertainment for her three year old son.

Texas Ranger Cookies

Remember the cake I told you to make? It's old news.
Now make these. Make these now. You have to know that a recipe this torn and stained and creased has been made again and again and again. And one does not make something again and again and again unless it's truly one of the best things to melt in your mouth again and again and again. These seriously are the best cookies ever. Undercook them. At the first hint of browning take them out. Gotta trust me on this! If you think they look done, you've cooked them too long.

To my family reading this: yes, dozens and dozens of these will be in mexia! :)

Wishing-she-was-back-at-the-beach-and-not-at-this-workshop owl

life with sons

As I calmly sipped my coffee this morning, a nerf dart, shot from a good 20 feet away, splashed right into my coffee!
Boys!!!
Mason should have feared for his life but he was far too impressed with his aim to be scared.
And I was consequently too in love with his triumphant smile to pummel him.
And that is this morning's story about my coffee.

sweet boys

Michael David and Grant. Almost 2 and almost 4. All the way cute. :)

In-love-with-her-coffee owl

How on earth do non-coffee drinkers get out of bed in the morning?

Falling

You will soon be falling in love.
Make this recipe. It's my grandmother's. It's delicious and easy and cheap and heavenly.

 

 

Tasting the batter is a must! Worry not about raw egg consumption. Life is about taking risks. This one is well worth the risk. Trust me.

While it's baking, slice up a pound or 12 of strawberries and bury them in sugar. Lots of sugar. Life is meant to be lived to the fullest. I do this through sugar. I encourage you to do the same.

Finally, enjoy. I meant to take a picture of the finished product, but, well...I kinda forgot...

A bowl of...

Cherries! Quite possibly my favorite fruit. Tasty and so very photogenic. :)

what to do with 1100 prints

When we got home from our Port Aransas trip, I decided something. I said, "Self, you're going to PRINT these pictures. Print them, I say! Like in the old days (read: 2004) when you came home from vacation with rolls of film, printed them good or bad, and then did...something...with all the prints!" 

Well, after that talk with my self I had another. 

"If you're going to print these, you might as well print Memorial Day Pictures. And if you print those, you might as well do Easter too! And Mason's birthday..." And this went on and on and on until I had burned 1100ish photos to a DVD.

Obviously, I had no idea printing a year's worth of photos would result in 1100 photos. But I didn't care! Because, I'm sick and tired of never printing anything. I love going home and flipping through my mom's old albums. Even the "bad" pictures have something special about them. I take some pretty great pictures, and some pretty bad pictures too, but they're all held hostage on my computer and no one ever sees them.

No longer, I say! 

But before I spent, well, quite a chunk of change on the prints I wanted a plan for them. Because 1100 photos shoved in a box in a closet is no better than 1100 prints saved on a hard drive. 

And after two trips to Hobby Lobby and 3 trips to Michaels and much deliberation and mind changing, I came up with a plan. I knew I wanted whatever I did with the prints to be:

• simple - I'm fairly certain I will take more pictures in the future. Just a guess. And I want to have a plan that won't seem overwhelming so that I will keep up with it.
• cheap - uh, 1100 prints demands that. 
• kid/people friendly - I want these pictures to be seen! Flipped through! Enjoyed!
• and somewhat different/creative

Here's what I decided to do. I think I saw this idea on some blog or magazine a long time ago...

I printed the pictures. This is what 1100 pictures looks like.

 I sorted them by event or whatever made sense. Yes, our carpet is lovely, isn't it? Ha.

I used a hole puncher...

...tag cards, adhesive backed card stock...

...and various sizes of binder rings.

I punched holes in the corner. It's embarrassing how long I deliberated over the location of the holes.

I wrote a brief title for each stack of photographs on the tag cards. I tried to include dates and locations of the photographs if it made sense.I experienced brief handwriting anxiety. I contemplated printing labels somehow. "Keep it simple!!!" I yelled at myself. And continued writing my imperfect, crooked lined titles...

Now, the one thing I don't like about flipping through mom's albums is that many of the photographs have no captions.  There is quite a lot of guessing of ages, locations, etc. So I cut that adhesive backed cardstock up and wrote little captions for photographs that I felt needed it...

peeled off the backing...

and slapped it on the back of the photograph

 Then put it all together on a binder ring.

I debated for a while about display options. For now, they're in this flat basket I already had. I'm thinking over the years (if I keep this up, which I really hope I do) I'll put them in a variety of containers in a variety of places around the house - big glass jars, hanging from hooks, boxes, trays, etc. Only time will tell! 

So, there you go! Photographs. Printed. Who would have thought? :)

sprinklers

Man, I love this kid!
(unrelated to this post, but before I forget, lately Grant will randomly look at me and say in a sweet little voice, "you a cutie momma!" He also says it in the middle of getting in trouble. It's very hard (or impossible) to keep a stern face.)

I'll be shootin' in style now!

>

> When we got home yesterday, this cute little yellow box was sitting in my office. Inside was this even cuter camera strap cover! It was a surprise thank you gift from Crystal for doing her family pictures(which, for the record, is the easiest thing in the world because her children are like well trained professionals) and I am in love with it! I'm currently addicted to yellow so it's perfect!! I cant wait to show it off at a shoot! Thanks crystal!!!
>

Mason's Friend

We took the boys to the Texas State Aquarium one day and it was amazing! More posts with pictures from real cameras will come. But this is a video of mason petting a stingray! He stayed at this exhibit for like an hour! He was completely mesmerized by these creatures. If you look closely in the video you can see the stingray come up and look at him. That same stingray just kept coming back to Mason. Pretty cool!

Port A Sunset

Because, well, you know, it is vacation after all! :) yummy!

Little Miss Sunshine

Well... Not, like, all the time but mostly sunshiny. :) My favorite thing about the beach? The boys enjoying it... And working on my tan. And I do get quite a thrill out of finding a sand dollar. And the smell of sea air. And the constant breeze. And the bright beachy colored cottages... Really I just love the beach! Although I'm fairly certain my hair will never recover from the beach-chlorine-shower routine...oh, well!

Shore dweller

(in case you havent figured it out, all photos are of the iPhone variety and then enhanced with the greatest app ever, instagram. "real" photos will come later...hopefully.)

Mason, as opposed to Grant, prefers to spend his beach time on the shore. He is fascinated by the crabs and shells and teeny shrimp and... He likes the waves but loves so much more to watch a crab dig a hole or to find yet another sand dollar. And the seagulls! He loves them! He's always been a bird lover... It's been so fun to see the ocean through my little guys' eyes.

beach boy

Grant could play at the beach forever. Alone. He just sits, digging in the sand, giggling as a new wave comes in. He will also, for no real apparent reason, run up and down the beach as fast as his little legs will carry him. It's exhausting just to watch! He has absolutely loved the ocean.

Grandmommy's House

Growing up, my mom's mom, Grandmommy, lived in corpus Christi. We would visit often throughout the year and oh, how I loved her house. It had thick sticker free grass in the front and back which was quite a treat to us country kids. She had a long driveway that was prefect for rollerblading and bike riding and hopscotching. And then of course was what we found inside her house-the most delicious food you'd ever eat in your whole life, Wheel of Fortune every night, an antique filled parlor... It was heaven. So we found her house yesterday. It looked so different...but it brought back so many memories.

Port Aransas Sunrise

We're in Port Aransas for our family vacation. I tried to run yesterday. But I felt it was a far better use of my time to sit and marvel at this... :)

Test

Sent from my iPhone