March 2010 in Pictures

Spring's upon us, and I've taken lots of pictures this month.  I thought it might be fun to recapture the month in photography.  So, enjoy!

My good friend Connie's dad passed this week, and these kiddos were there to honor their great-grandfather.  They brought a lot of laughter to the situation.  To me, children always represent hope...and heritage.
Meet Camry and Addison - cousins - who were doing EVERYTHING my friend Tamra told them to do - "Girls, hold your hair up - act like a movie star!"

Aren't these girlies too cute?   They loved the camera.

And sometimes, the photographer inspires them to act out a little...y'all know I can't resist a sign - or a challenge!!  This is Coby, Camry's brother, posing with his sister and cousin.  If the cops ask, I had everything nothing to do with it. 

A friend of mine asked me to take Easter pix of her boys.  Their dad is a fireman, so we dropped by the station, just as he was coming in from a call.  Here, the boys and their mom are watching the truck back into the station.  It was so cool to watch the boys run to their dad for hugs once he got out of the truck.

In this shot, Ayden's teaching little brother Maddux the perfect rock throwing technique.

I was so glad I snagged this shot of Ayden giving his mommy some love...it was a crazy windy day, and the boys were tired.  We got some great shots, though!

Below, Geoffrey, our Little Brother in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.  Here, we were at a restaurant, and I loved the light pouring in through the window on this overcast day.  Geoffrey's always up for a photo moment - I love that about him!

I've watched Anna grow up...we had so much fun on this shoot day.  She's a card!

Happy End of March!!

The Allergy Season Is Upon Me....

My allergies are killing me!

I woke up this morning, took a Claritin (preventative, I might add!), put allergy eye drops in,  hopped in the shower, and started to get ready.  Somethings blooming around here (and yeah, it was 32 degrees Saturday) and it’s kicking my butt.

First....makeup, then hair.

I was just finishing with my hair when it started.  My left eye went  crazy, watering.

Makeup, and all, melted down to my chin.

Did I say it hurt?

It hurt.

So, I wash my eye.  Now, I’m really looking good.  Like one of those before and after commercials.  One side, completely made up, the other, looking like crap.

My eye quits watering.

I start over on that eye....eye shadow, little bit of liner, little bit of mascara.  I don’t wear that much makeup, people.

I get up to get dressed, and here it all goes again.  PLUS my eye starts swelling.  I run to the sink, take it all off, and ThatManILove grabs an ice pack.  

I lay down on the bed, with the ice pack over my eye.

Finally, about an hour later, I’m able to get out of the house with some semblance of being “put together.”

My eye’s still watering.  I’ve taken my second dose of allergy medicine, which, by the way, gives me a headache.

There might be something to be said for the frozen tundra and the lack of allergies thereof.

I Lost A Week - Can Someone Tell Me Why?

How did this week fly by?

Let me count the ways. Work takes up a lot of time.  And then...constant entertainment. I think it started last week, when friends came over for supper two nights in a row (they were moving, and had no kitchen.) Here are some pix of their little girlies.  Beautiful?  You betcha.  Sweet babies, all of them.






























Last Saturday found us tooling around Midland, checking out real estate.  Yup.  Not to move, though, just to see what was hanging out on the foreclosure market.  Because I’m always looking for the next best deal. We saw some funny stuff, some cool stuff, and some very very scary stuff.  Interesting.  Verrrrrry interesting, people.
Saturday evening, I took some pix of a beautiful young lady. We had to book it to beat sunset (look hard, you can see the fading light in the background.  Cool, huh?  Who knew?)

Sunday morning, at dawn, more pix of the beautiful young lady, plus her beautiful sisters. We shot four locations in one hour and took over 300 shots.  And had fun! 

Then, we cooked out for Younger Son and friends.  Or wait, was that Saturday?  Arrrrrgh. All week, ThatManILove worked on taxes, and readied for his next frac job.  He was a busy man, sometimes home, sometimes on location.  And I worked.

We had dinner with clients or coworkers every. single. night.  And this morning, we’ll do brunch with co-workers considering moving to Midland.

Plus, the Little Brother and a friend spent the night.  They woke up at 6:30 am, I heard them drop something.

And I wonder why I look up, and it’s yet another holiday?  Yikes.  Okay.  Off to brunch.


(PS - having font trouble when I post pix to Blogger.  Sorry for the disarray!)

 

Janie's Fun House

Tonight, our house was full of little munchkins.  Friends with kids came over for supper, as their house is being packed to move to another town.  I love children, but y’all probably knew that already, right?

These little girls are beautiful.  The two oldest wanted to eat their supper in the TV room, so we set them up on our coffee table.  I soon went to check on them, and got there just in time to rescue their food from Zack the Wonderdog.  It seems that the girls had gone exploring in the room, and weren’t watching their food.

While they were exploring, they found this bowl that’s sole purpose is  to house the remote.  Instead, the girls found all sorts of treasures in this bowl.

They found:

An H2S monitor

A lens cap for my camera

A small part of the vacuum cleaner

A sock that someone had rescued from Zanna the Wonderdog

Some highlighters

One of those stretchy headbands with a light on it - for nighttime reading while camping.

A lipstick, and nail polish (thank God I was around for that find!)

It seems our maids have been stashing whatever they find laying around in that bowl.

Of course, girls being girls, we had to try the lipstick on everyone.

And then, we had to get the little mirror in the bathroom out, so the girls could admire themselves.

And while one young lady took me into her mom to show her our lipstick, the little sister found a sheet of postage stamps...

And proceeded to decorate the little mirror with the entire sheet, one stamp at a time.

ThatManILove has a desk in this room, and the oldest girl found a hole punch.  That and the highlighters, augmented by some post-it notes, kept her entertained for the better part of an hour.

Who says you need toys to entertain kiddos?

They're coming back tonight for a rerun.  Wonder what we'll find?

Tonight was too much fun.

Sponge

I’m like a sponge.  No, I am a sponge. I think I’m absorbing the feelings of everyone around me.   I’m up, and I’m down.  I’m down, and I’m up.  I don’t know what’s going on with me, but tonight, I’m gonna have to go hunting.  For me.  And writing is part of that, so you get to go along with me!

You see, I’ve lost my smile.  Just today, I noticed it was gone.  And for no obvious reason.  Oh, lots of peripheral things are going on...

ThatManILove is reviewing his business books and though he knew it already, he’s seeing exactly how we dumped way too much into a project that just sucked up dinero like a vaccuum with no return.  So, he’s plowing through the black and white of it all.  I’m encouraging him, and...loss carry forward on your taxes is a good thing, right?!

One of my best friends is wending her way this week through the halls of M.D. Anderson, trying to find out answers to the pre-diagnosis of a brain tumor.  I wish I could be with she and her husband right now, to help, and to just be there.

Two weeks ago tonight, four of Younger Son’s friends and fellow ensemble musicians suffered a horrible auto accident - one is dead, one lost her arm (and she’s a mandolin player), one’s in a coma, and one suffered many broken bones, but is healing.  Younger Son was supposed to be with them...but was tired, and opted out of the late movie date.  We’re so very thankful Younger Son’s alive and intact.  Watching him deal with the grief, the heart issues and the mental part of the accident aftermath is one of the hardest things we’ve ever done.  Watershed moments in a young man’s life...

Thanks for listening....

I’m gonna get quiet now, and get back to myself.  Yeah, I am.  Y'all better be ready.

But for now...Peace.  Be still.

Me and My Big Mouth...

Okay, here’s another hospital happening.

Remember when my brother and I were in the emergency room, waiting on my test results so they could take me into surgery for the emergency appendectomy?  How could you forget, you say?  That’s all I’ve been writing about?  Yeah, that day.

I found out there are rules for all the workers at the hospital.  Seriously.

Some of them are annoying.  Very, very annoying.  And before you say a freakin’ word, like there are reasons for rules, believe me, I know.   I didn’t get to this advanced age by always being a rebel without hitting some boundaries in my life.  But....I digress.

Every single caretaker that came into my room said something along the lines of “Hi, I’m Nurse Ratchet.  I’m here to take care of you.  What is your name?  (as they looked at my name tag).  And why are you here?  I was very polite, smiling as much as I could, because, you know, honey gets more stuff done that's how I rock.

Finally, my surgeon’s assistant, a pretty 4th year medical student named Laura, comes in.  I’ll call her Surgeon Laura.  (names and towns have been somewhat modified to somewhat protect the innocent.)

Surgeon Laura sits down by my bed, with my chart.  She’s all smiles, and bubbly, a beautiful young lady.  “Hello, I’m Surgeon Laura.  I’ll be assisting Dr. McDreamy during your surgery.  I understand you’re from Small Local Town.

I assure her I am.  Then she says (wait for it), “Why are you here?”

I turn my head towards her, somehow keep a straight face, and say, “I’m here for a sex change operation.”

Her face totally turns to stone, and she looks away.  I know, you’re thinking, “Oh, Janie - you did not.”  Yeah, I did.

I turn and look at my brother, and he’s about to bust a freakin’ gut.  I turn back to Surgeon Laura, and she’s still in shut down mode. ( Inside, I’m mad at myself - it’s obvious I’ve offended her.) Me and my big mouth.  I have a problem with that automatic zipper that should be installed in my mouth, oh, yes I do.  

I turn back to Surgeon Laura, and touch her arm.  I tell her I’m just kidding,  She finishes her interview, rather tersely, I might add, and gets up and leaves.  Soon after, I’m in the OR, and she’s teasing me about what I said, telling on me to Dr. McDreamy and the surgical team.

The next morning, at 6:30 a.m., she’s in my room, checking on me. Still about halfway drugged, I introduce her to ThatManILove, and tell him “she’s the one I embarrassed about the supposed sex change.”

Surgeon Laura stops me, and she’s smiling.  She said, "I  need to tell you why I shut down on you yesterday.  Last week, I was interning in a mental hospital, FROM YOUR SAME SMALL LOCAL TOWN, and I sat down by this person to admit them into surgery, and basically enacted the exact same scenario.”

Me:  Really?

SL:   Yes.  It really messed me up.

Me:  Why?

SL:  This person was schizophrenic, and it was one of the personalities talking to me, and it wasn’t joking!!!  It was a very uncomfortable situation.  After I figured out you were messing with me, I got a kick out of it.

Yeah, I can sure stick my foot in my mouth sometimes.  You can count on that. You can dang sure count on that.

Making That List, and Checking It Twice

Next week, I can go back to work.  I’m sort of ready to do so. I’m not a stay-at-home person - I have to be on the go.

But, you know, I could get so used to being at the house!  Though I’ve been recuperating, I have been able to get ThatManILove to do some things for me.

He totally reorganized the kitchen, which has been in a state of remodel for some time.  One of our friends measured the backsplash for stainless steel, and probably be installing the backsplash.  I think it will look amazing.

ThatManILove built our cabinets, and they’re beautiful.  All of them have glass fronts, though, which is sometimes hard for storing grocer goods.  I suggest putting a frost film on the glass, which TMIL did.  It looks amazing, and we may go ahead and do all the cabinets, instead of just the 4 end ones.  The film pattern is called Cascade, and it looks like fine line water drops.  Sweet.

I still am unable to lift things, so tomorrow, he’s pulling all the bins out of my closet and putting them on the bed for me so I might reorganize them.

I may be walking wounded,  but I’m getting some stuff done.

It makes me feel a little better about missing work.