Dear Kristen...

look...
we found your dress in our freezer (:


love, blaire.

The Mall

Doesn't this look like fun.

When I was younger I used to love going to the mall.
I could spend all day at the mall.
Then I worked at a mall.
For years and years I worked at the mall.
And my feelings about the mall changed.

Since we're getting married
we figured it would be a good idea for us all
to have some shiny, new clothes to wear.

So off to the mall we went.


First stop: Food Court.

No, we didn't eat ice cream for lunch.
We had Quiznos sandwiches.
But this was my view while we ate and it looked yummy!


This carousel was also in the food court.

When I was growing up I used to love to
go to the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz
and ride the Zebras on the carousel there.

Sure wish I was there right now instead of the mall.


Moving on to the serious business of wedding clothes.

We are planning on getting married in the woods near a creek,
officiated by a hillbilly minister in overalls.
That means fancy schmancy clothes are out.

We're going for a casual look.
The "Hurry up and marry us so we can get to Dollywood" look.


Bri fell in love with this shirt.

Blaire and I thought it was ugly.
And we told her :)


And Blaire loved this dress.

But, I had already told them no zebras,
so I got to veto this one :)


My stephdaughters are sooo cool!

And look...there is that ugly shirt again.
That's a big piece of white lace on the back of it.
I called it her grandma shirt.

I do have to admit that the girl has an ability to pick out
clothes that are not so cute on the hanger,
but when she puts them on they look really really cute.

But with this one,
even though it looked cute on,
she isn't the one that's going
to have to look at that lace on the back.


And they do whatever I tell them.


No matter how silly it is.

I can't help but think of my Mom
every time I tell them to do something
that they think is embarrassing.

The girls are awesome though and always comply
with whatever crazy idea I have.

Usually.


I thought this purse was cute!

Blaire said it would be cute if my name was Annie.

And I was an orphan.

I didn't get the purse.


Hmmm.

Who would think to pose mannequins like that?

At this point I HAD to get out of the mall.

We came, we shopped,
we conquered.

And my feet hurt.


So back in the car for the glorious ride back to my sanity.


I've never been so happy to see this sign.
*grin*

Tweet Tweet

Off to the mall with the girls to look for wedding clothes :)
I love the mall
I love the mall
I love the mall
Maybe if I keep saying it, it will come true!

Birthday Tree 39

Every year I get a tree for my birthday.
This is the Crepe Myrtle that I got when I turned 39.

This morning I found I heart faces
and I think I'll be spending lots of time there.

From there I found Susan Keller.
She takes beautiful photos.

And I learned about capturing those golden rays of sunshine.

PW's Yummy Apple Tarts

I made 'em tonight.

And she's right. They're yummy.

She was also right about the oozing part,
so I suggest that you put foil under the tarts
while they're in the oven.

And while you're at it
turn the sides of the foil up
so you've got your tarts in a little tart boat.

Because if you cook anything like I cook,
you're going to end up with a dripping, oozing,
smoking, smelly mess in the bottom of your stove.

But they we're still yummy.
Better than yummy with a glass of milk.

And I'm absolutely sure that if you had vanilla
ice cream dished up on the side of that apple tart,
They'd be at their yummiest!

We didn't have ice cream.
We gave it up.
That's why we were cooking apple tarts.
It's got fruit ya know.

*smile*

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We're watching Secondhand Lions.
I want a piggie!

A Memorable Memorial Day

We had company this weekend!

Duane's nephew Christopher came to visit
and he brought his LOVELY girlfriend Tammy
and her DELIGHTFUL son Caleb.

They had gone to the aquarium in New Orleans
on Memorial Day and stopped by
to visit us on their way back home.

Christopher loves picking on the girls
and they scream and pout and act like they don't like it...
even though you know they do.

This little guy can't hide his excitement though.

He was at his happiest when Chris threw him around the pool.

He did a cannonball,
and me being the camera happy person that I am,
asked him to do another so I could get a picture.

And another. and another.

Apparently I need to time it better next time,
because this is the only picture I kept getting:

I was much more successful when he was stationary.
Or at least when part of him was.

We have about 9 balls that we play with in the pool
and they usually make their way outside the pool.

On this day they were ALWAYS outside of the pool!
Putting them back in was a full time job and Duane
eventually gave up enjoying being in the pool
to stay outside of the pool and throw the balls back in.

We play volleyball with them and we stand on them
and try to see who can stand the longest without falling over.
Oh...and we hit one another with them.
Lucky for us they went half flat over the winter.

Splashing is a big part of pool life here at our house.
If you don't want to get splashed, don't go near the pool.
It's my least favorite thing about the pool.
I hate wet hair when it's not hot enough
outside to dry it in an instant.

Here is Blaire getting some loving from her cousin.

I love the maniacal look on Christopher's face.
He loves torturing this one.
She loves it too.

I think this little guy was our favorite part of the whole day.
Duane's burgers came in a close second,
but man o man was this kid fun!

He's fearless.

And his favorite part of kindergarten was
NOT MATH
&
NOT STANDING IN THE CORNER!


"Secret invisible memo that only Chris can see"

Dear Christopher,
This one is the keeper.
Love, Stephanie

My Own Charlotte

Wednesday night I was outside
and my face ran into a cobweb that I couldn't see.

It felt like a big one.

All I could think about was
that the spider was on me!

I turned the outside light on and this is what I found:

She is so cute inside the agapanthus!
(you should click on that picture to see just how cute she is)

I named her Charlotte.

I knew she would be remaking her web
the next night and was determined to get her picture.

So I watched and waited.

And waited and watched.

She didn't like the flash very much
and kept running back to the safety of her flower.

Inside I would go to wait for her to come back
out of the flower and start building again.

I eventually figured this was going to
be a long process and decided to go to bed.

When I left her she was still spinning her web,
I'm sure thinking of all the glorious food she
would be able to catch once she finished.

This is what I woke up to in the morning:

"RADIANT"

I wonder how long it took her to create that?

And this picture, while it isn't the greatest
of quality, shows you where she built her web:

Right smack dab in the middle of the walkway to the barn.

The perfect place for someone to walk right into it :)

Bobo, Seven & Vinnie

I think Bobo has given up and realized
that I'm not going to stop taking pictures of him.

When the girls aren't with us I have limited subjects,
so every other week you may be seeing lots of cats.


This is Seven. She is about sixteen.

She once had 7 kittens.
We named them 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.


This is Bobo's brother, Vinnie.


We thought with the name Vinnie
he would sort of be a thug.

He's a big baby.

The Prince

This is Prince.

He's my neighbor and I adore him.

I got to know him after Hurricane Katrina knocked our fence down.

Without a fence I got to see him every day!

Then the fence went back up.

But....

a board "fell" out of the fence and I won't let Duane put it back up.

With the board back in place it makes it difficult to feed him Milkbones.

And he likes Milkbones :)

Testing

123

photo by: Blaire

Meow

I've been playing around with the new camera this morning.

There are only so many things that I can take pictures of in the backyard if the girls aren't awake, but the cats were available.

I've decided that Bobo is a brat.

Well, I already knew that, but now I have proof.

For every picture that he would actually look at the camera
I have 10 pictures where he would not.

I finally was able to get a few good ones though.

Vinnie on the other hand loves to have his picture taken.

You can always count on him to be the center of attention.

Unless you're a stranger.

Then you won't even know that he exists.

Unless you get a glimpse of the black and white blur
running to the bedroom to hide.