because when Caleb came out of the bathroom with this rather wonky little fauwhawk, I knew I had to get the camera out.

And yes, I let him wear it to school.

But only because I knew it would be completely flat by the time he left =)

The architect of that fauxhawk?

Miss Hanna, who as usual really stepped in and helped out quite a bit while I've been sick and looks entirely too old in this picture.

Oh, and Mom – you you see that white blotch on her upper cheek?  Didn't I have the same sort of thing going on when I was that age?  Do you remember what it was?

I am slowly feeling better.  Hoping to get back to normal and back on top of things by this weekend.

Just a few pictures from our visit to De Leon Springs today…

 a butterfly – seriously, this thing was huge!  About the size of the palm of my hand. There were also hordes of little bitty frogs, about the size of a dime.  I wasn't able to get a picture of them, but the ground looked like it was moving because of them.  Ick!

Our master diver =)

I think the kid would live with the snorkel in his mouth if we let him!  Lots of little fish to see in the Spring (which is why this Mom took pictures and didn't put more than a toe in the water).

I call this one Uncle Roger In Training – just like his Uncle Rog, Caleb has never met a stranger and it doesn't take him long to learn the life story of everyone he meets. 

Miss Hanna – love this all faded out.  It really makes her eyes sparkle.

The Old Spanish Sugar Mill Restaurant – we haven't done this yet, but you can cook pancakes on a griddle in the middle of your table!  We did hear they don't have air conditioning in there, so we'll definitely be looking to do this over the cooler months – maybe when Uncle Dale comes to visit or maybe with Grandpa and Uncle Roger.  It's not quite an hour and a half from our house and it's a beautiful drive.

Our visit today was for a welcoming picnic for the new ordained staff for our conference of the United Methodist Church.  We were there in place of Pastor Doug who couldn't be there and we ended up coming home with lots of door prizes – gift certificates to Chick-Fil-A and Blockbuster and 2 Park Hopper Passes to Disney =)

We also finally got to see one of these (don't look, Mom!)…

the very first gator we've seen outside of Sea World, the nature reserve near Kennedy Space Center or down near Miami since we moved here three and a half years ago.

   Oh Walt Disney World… what a tangled mess are my feelings about you.

I am so easily caught up in your "magic" (which is in reality great marketing and customer service), and yet I am so nauseated by the consumerism, the general rudeness of your guests, and the fact that so many peopel would rather spend thousands upon thousands of dollars here rather than seeing the true splendor and beauty of America.  And of course… the expense.

Oh well.

We had a great day checking out two parks we hadn’t yet visited – Epcot and Animal Kingdom.  And while we didn’t even see half of either park, it was enough for us.  We came home exhausted, with sore feet and empty wallets…but happy.

Just a quick warning -  this is going to be a very photo heavy post! 

Hanna decided to get her hair cut short again Saturday morning – and we’re all loving it.  The light is a little weird in this one, but I love the two of them together =)

We ate lunch at the Oktoberfest behind Tom, the kids and the fountain.  It’s in the German Pavilion at Epcot and is a bit pricey (I know, what isn’t at WDW?), but worth it.  Buffet style Bavarian – yummy!  If we’d eaten later, they had a show.  Not sure what it was, but I’m betting there was yodeling involved.

We really enjoyed Epcot, and perhaps even more so because their Plant and Garden Festival was going on.  We found a little garden where they were doing a ladybug release and the photo above is Hanna releasing her little box of ladybugs. 

Caleb wasn’t so sure about it =)

We really enjoyed Epcot and finally all got to ride Soarin, but also wanted to get to Animal Kingdom before they closed.  There was an entire side of Epcot we missed and we also sort of ran through the Pavilions…a return trip is going to be needed!

Caleb seemed most interested in shopping.  Every shop, every cart…we had to stop so he could look.  He got to bring a bit of his birthday money to spend and he wasn’t going to be happen until he spent every last penny of it.  The boy is a consumer through and through – we’re going to have to start working on some saving skills soon with him!

At Animal Kingdom, we really liked the Kilimanjaro Safari.  I was rather amused the group sitting a row in front of us that didn’t know animals my 2 year old nephew would and insisited on calling tusks "husks" (and I so wish I were talking about the kids in the group, but I’m not).  Hanna and Caleb just liked seeing all of the animals up close.  Some a bit too close for my comfort.  No one warned me there would be ostriches and that they wouldn’t be in cages.  I did get that rather cool photo of a little nest of ostrich eggs, though.

I’m not even sure what kind of fish those are – I just like that photo of Tom and Caleb =)

And possibly my favorite animal find of the day – meerkats!  Aren’t they cute?

Another favorite?

  That would be this guy.  I think we saw four gorillas and they always amaze me.  And make me feel like I work for National Geographic =)

Loving this photo too – fun light.

Our little consumer and his new friend.  The new friend is currently a tangled up mess already.  Sigh.

\

And Mom, I think you need this in your backyard!

That’s all for now.  I realized last night I haven’t had photos printed since Hanna’s birthday in January, so I’m going to try to spend a half hour each night this week trying to sort through, edit and then get an order placed.  I hate letting it go that long!

Downloaded these the other day and have been playing around whenever I get a few moments. 

I love actions and I love The Pioneer Woman(it’s one of my 3 or 4 daily must read blogs). 

These are so easy to use and the results….

Well, remember this picture?

*sigh*

I love this picture.  The water, the pudgy little toddler arms, the Molly =)

I love this one too.

And this one.  Love the softness.

And this one. 

Actually, I considered blowing this one up really big and hanging it in the kids bathroom.

But then I decided that might be a bit weird and stalker-ish. 

So I’m not going to.

But I might try to stage something like it with my own kids.

Although I’m still considering a bunch of vintage-y prints like the last one of our favorite people in the bathroom.

Would that be creepy?

As of this morning, we’ve officially had rain for seven straight days. 

And lots of it.  Afternoon thunderstorms and now a little cold front that’s kept us under constant clouds for the last two days.

I enjoy the rain. 

Not so much the humidity.

And not so much the rain so hard you can’t hardly see out the windshield with the wipers going full blast.

Our garden seems to love it though…

The squash is growing visibly every day. Two blossoms on this plant and three or four on the other.

The tomatoes seem to be on steroids.  The plants have just about doubled in size from this time last week.  And while this plant has a few little tomatoes, the others have loads of blossoms just about ready to open.  The plant here we bought at Wal-Mart, and two weeks ago it was significantly larger than the ones we started from seeds.  Now, our seedlings are kicking it’s rear.  Much bigger, more blooms.

This was our garden just about two months ago, when Tom finished building our raised bed.

And this is it now…

Closest are the squash, then a random broccoli that sprouted (still haven’t quite figured that one out), some bell peppers (which aren’t quite keeping up with the rapid growth of everything else) and then the jungle of tomatoes at the back.

Tom’s already planning our next round of plantings, and we’re hoping to add another raised bed in the next few months. 

But unfortunately, the rain and humidity don’t seem to be a good mix for all things.  This would be one of them…

Yep.  The boy. He has been a general non-ending source of crankiness and general hum-buggery for the last week.  Maybe it’s Spring Break, maybe it’s that he’s going to be 6 in a few weeks.  Maybe it’s just that he’s growing through his third size of pants since school started…listening has become an almost foreign skill for him and crankiness has been a constant. 

In this picture, he’d decided he was done playing in the sprinkler.  So he kinked it so no one else could.  The next day, he just decided to remove the sprinkler head while everyone else was playing in it.  He is stubborn in ways I have never before experienced.

Yesterday, we had to leave church before the first worship song even started.  He didn’t want to go to Sunday School, he didn’t want to sit in big church.  He wanted to do something fun.  Unfortunately for him, what he got was a sharp talking to from Dad in the church bathroom and a  loss of privileges. 

I’m hoping that as our weather settles down a bit he does too. 

Having one of those days where I’ll do just about anything to avoid the things I should be doing.

Took a trip to Winter Garden this morning to check out the new JoAnn’s and Target (instead of going for a run and then getting to work).

Puttered around all afternoon, sort of working on many things but accomplishing nothing (except watching the last of Disc One of Slings & Arrows Season 3).

Heck, I even watched Oprah!

And this evening, rather than getting a little work done, I took some pictures of our little garden and then spent far too much time editing them. 

I’m just feeling rather empty at the moment – creatively speaking.  No inspiration, no creative mojo.  Haven’t really had much for the last month.  Feeling like I’ve been stuck in my obsessive little routine and looking for something to shake it up.  I’m actually going to try working in my office tomorrow, as opposed to dragging things into the living room and working on the floor there. I’ve been sort of assembly line producing my layouts for sale since August, so I’m going to try focusing again on one layout start to finish.  Change is good – right?

I also finally got around to ordering the last few month’s worth of photos so I can actually do a little scrapping of my own.  For some reason, the Ebay layouts seem to come easier when I’m also doing my own stuff – even though there are very few similarities in what I do for me and what I do to sell.

Off to find a little more work to avoid, but first – here’s a little looksy at our garden progress.  Things seem to be doing a little better now that our weather has changed just a little.  Lots of new growth!

And no, they’re not of food this time (but maybe later. I’m trying a new recipe for dinner).

When I bought my Nikon D70 from Jacob, he included a 50mm fixed lens (actually it’s a 50 mm lens and then there’s something about 1:1.8D – I really need to read that manual).

And I left that lens in the box.

Because to be terribly honest, I’m still a bit frightened of the camera (which would probably be remidied if I fit some of my photo books into my regular reading rotation). 

It’s heavier than I’m used to, and faster than I’m used to, and well – there are an awful lot of buttons and dials and things that I could seriously screw up.

But last night, I was feeling inspired.  The kids were playing outside in the sprinklers and eating popcicles and I decided to just go for it.  Took the kit lens off the camera body and snapped on the 50 mm.

And I may never take it off. 

Oh.my.heck.

I love this lens. 

I love the pictures I took with this lens.

The pictures Tom took of me with this lens, I don’t so much love. 

They’re already deleted. 

And he’s not allowed to touch the camera anymore.

But these quick pics of the kids – look at the water on Caleb’s hand. 

How crisp the popcicle is, and how you can still tell it’s him.

Love it.

And then there’s Hanna.

Her serious look, which we don’t see so often (at least not when the camera is out).

These are straight from the camera, and I’ll probably play with the one of Hanna a little – brighten it up a bit.

I’m addicted.

I’ve got a little photo shoot in the plans for this weekend

And maybe even reading some of those manuals and photo books that are sitting in my studio.
***
Weight Watcher’s today – down 2 more pounds.  Total of 19.2. 

Go me!

I was really, really hoping to hit 20 today, but 2 is good. 

Very good. 

And my usual after-Weight Watcher’s treat – a trip to the library by myself.  I love having time to browse, only carrying my own books and not the 14 oversized whale ones Caleb likes.

2 more Jonathon Kellerman books (dang, he’s addictive!  I start one and I can’t put it down until it’s done).  I’m also really digging Robert Harris right now – he’s a bit like Irving Stone with intrigue.  4 books total for this week – I’m almost embarassed by how much I’ve been reading lately, but I haven’t really been watching television.  Maybe 4 or 5 hours a week here lately. 

Certainly not complaining about that.