Yesterday's Project

I loved waking up to my finished project of yesterday.

Mmmmmm...24 pints of canned chicken. DELISH!

Just because I haven't posted....

I have the hardest time coming up with post titles. Mostly because my posts are rarely ever based on one theme and just kindof random. Which brings me to today's post....
Why am I obsessed with my peas? I think I'm just excited that I can grow stuff in the winter. (Sorry, I don't mean to keep rubbing in that we are enjoying awesome weather in the winter and everyone else is in the freezing cold.)


But they are so pretty and everything else is all dead and leaf-less.


And I have caught some wonderful bug the past several months where I'm discovering the WONDERFUL food I can make. If you haven't checked out Allrecipes.com, do so now! It's the best recipe book ever. But this wonderful Buffalo Chicken Pizza was on my friend, Shandee's blog a few months back. I tried it and we were converted. Chicken breast, Frank's Red Hot Sauce, celery, bleu cheese, jack cheese....all on a whole wheat crust. Delicious. (Only this time I put too much bleu cheese and almost yacked. A mistake I won't make again.)


And last night I made this....chicken and shrimp jambalaya...again, from Allrecipes. With brown rice. I didn't have any good sausage so I used some cheap breakfast ones. Still was amazing. (add feta cheese on top for extra awesomeness)

Also try THIS for an amazing meal.

Nolan is stepping further away from deathly afraid of the stinky reindeer. Check him out!!


Then immediately realized what he did and withdrew.


Did you know that lions sleep 20 hours a day. I know from experience. However, this time one was awake. And I think he looked at me and I realized I would not like to be face-to-face with him in the wild.


Aren't kids amazing? They just go day to day never really noticing the weather. Carter still puts on shorts like every day and every day i have to explain that it's still winter and that winter is not just one day. It's every day for a while.
Still doesn't click.
The water in the Pacific is hardly every above freezing and is only bearable in the summer when you are so hot it feels great. But did they notice that it was completely frigid? No they did not. And they played around in it until their pants were drenched.

And Carter experienced the horrible feeling of wet jeans rubbing against cold legs for the first time. Maybe he'll listen the next time I tell him not to get wet. Probably not.
Nolan had a great time until the inevitable happened and he biffed it and got completely wet.




My DARLING nieces came with my brother and sister-in-law, who, for a week,, escaped the horrible nastiness of winter that everyone else is now enduring




Isn't she beautiful? She looks like a porcelain doll.


I think I love being at the beach for the sunset more than being anywhere else. The breeze, the waves, the colors...it makes you feel beautiful just being part of it. It's amazing. And I love being there with my little stinkers.

And for those of you wanting me to post about photography, what the heck do you want to learn about?

A few of my favorite things...

HI! I'm BACK! Back to blogging. It's been a while. I've been very unreliable and I don't even apologize a bit. We have been going like crazy and it's been wonderful. I don't think anyone will blame me for being in the now, right?? But I do apologize for so shamelessly rubbing in how terrific our weather is right now. Especially since it's supposed to be cold and rainy for like the next 10 days.
Anyhoo...I don't know about anyone else but sometimes I compose these really great blog posts in my head as I'm taking pictures/emptying the dishwasher/going about daily life/cleaning up messes...and 9 times out of 10 they never make it to the actual blog. And yes, believe it or not, I do get writers block and struggle for one little witty thing to say to brighten up your bleak and freezing winter days (sorry again). Tonight has been one of those nights. Couldn't come up with a darned thing to write about other than "here's what we've been up to!" (yippee, those are always a blast...)
SO, as I was scanning through the pics I wanted to put on here I came up with this title and low and behold, now I have a post! TA DA!

So first on my list of my favorite things is...
my new macro lens converter ring thing. You're probably going, "What the heck?" and I would have said the same thing a year and a half ago. But I love being a bit educational on here so here's the gist...if you take your lens off your camera and flip it around backwards it won't fit. Drrr. And it will be seriously blurry. But if you hold it in place and get within a few inches of something all the sudden you have a macro lens (for really close-up pics of tiny things). So this ring will hold your backwards lens on your camera body. It's fun to play with and something (I gave myself) I got for Christmas. So I used my first favorite thing to take a picture of another favorite thing.
Raindrops on roses. (Whoa, cheesy.... okay, maybe it's dew. i'm not sure. I only know it's pretty).



These next two were taken without the ring-thingy...
Favorite things....orange blossoms and sugar snap peas even in the winter (usually a spring thing)




Walking hand-in-hand with little boys (more specifically, MY little boys)


Rolled-up jeans and shoe-less on the beach. Heavenly!


Taking the kids places they love (here at the Wild Animal Park in SD) and letting them pet the "stinky reindeer".


Watching Nolan conquer fears. He finally pet the stinky reindeer. Took quite a bit of coaxing on Carter's part.


Seeing guys with HUGE, and I mean HUUUGGEEE cameras and lenses at the WAP. They made my camera look ridiculous. Can you see that lens?? Holy crud. That thing had to be like 2 and a half feet across. Too bad all they could see was the lion's butt and I could get as close to that as i wanted with my lens. (p.s. Did you know that lions sleep for 20 hours a day? Yeah, I've seen it)


Getting ice cream with the boys and letting them get whatever the heck they want on top. Gummy worms, marshmallows, and rainbow sprinkles......MMMMmmmmm.....


And letting it get all over their faces.


And finally, pictures of my kids playing together.


You made it! Oh, and i was gonna ask...I've had a few questions from people about photography-related things lately.
Would anyone be interested in me doing some posts on the basics??

It's January...

...and it's 75 degrees and beautiful.
So I swear I'll try blogging soon.
But right now we're busy enjoying the weather everyone else enjoyed September-November.
And I really do feel sorry for all of you suffering in the sludge/snow/ice/inversion/nastiness. I lived in IDAHO for 3 years so I can sympathize.
And winter is SO looooooooooooooong and dreary.
But I got to wear jeans and a t-shirt to the Wild Animal Park today.
And maybe I got a bit of a tan.
And my hair got a little lighter.
And I even had a list mist of dew on my forehead as I pushed the stroller under the bright blue, cloudless sky.
And I breathed the fresh ocean air and let it fill my body with delicious warmth and loveliness.
But I really don't like to brag, so I certainly won't do that.
I'm just sayin...