I ♥ Faces - Sepia Toned

This weeks challenge over at I ♥ Faces is: Sepia Toned. As soon as I found out I knew which picture I would enter. Just the other night I was outside with Sam and he was listening to his MP3 player and leaning up against our fence. I grabbed my camera and started shooting. Here is one of my favorites from that evening. If you would like to see more just click on the icon above!

This & That

I can't believe that I haven't blogged for the last 8-9 days! Who ever said that summer vacation is a time to relax didn't have my son! I mean that in the best of ways. As usual I am keeping him busy.


Two Saturdays ago we spent most of the day at Hawaiian Falls. Sam and I both had a great time and I also had a lot of time reading my book! It's so nice that he's now to the age that I'm comfortable letting him go off to play. This water park is big enough for him to be entertained but small enough for me to be at peace when he's out by himself.

Last Monday night and tonight were my first knitting classes. I'm teaching up at our local activities center and have a great bunch of girls that I'm teaching. They are catching on so quickly and I'm already so proud of them. They have learned how to cast on, knit stitch and the purl stitch so far. I have two more weeks with them but already some of them are talking about taking the next classes that I'm offering. Speaking of knitting....guess who learned how to knit? That's right...Sam! After we got home from the first night of teaching he asked if I could teach him how. You would not believe how fast he caught on! Much quicker than all of the girls in my class. This past Saturday he even attended the World Wide Knit In Public Day with me at the Kimball Art Museum! Such the sport.

This past Thursday we all went to the Dallas World Aquarium. It was truly amazing. We had originally planned on going to the Dallas Zoo but the rain that was supposed to stop didn't and we changed our plans. I'm so glad that we did too! It is an amazing aquarium and we will go again.

We've started our free summer movies at the local theaters as well. We get to see a different one on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This week we're planning on going back to Hawaiian Falls and on Saturday we'll be spending the day in Austin. Fun, Fun, FUN!

You Capture - Feel

This last Thursday was Sam's last day of school as a 3rd grader. He is now officially considered a 4th grader. It's hard for me to believe! He's growing up so fast. To help him celebrate the end of the school year I took him to Hawaiian Falls for some water fun! We have season passes that we got as a Christmas present last year from my parents and I tell you already that we will get more out of these season passes than any other passes we've ever had. We went again today too and had a great time. Being season pass holders we even get in early to be able to have our pick of a place to park our stuff. Which we took advantage of today.

This weeks assignment for "You Capture" was FEEL. I had a hard time all week trying to think of a picture that I could take that would describe FEEL. Then today and this past Thursday I captured Sam enjoying the sun and water. Can you feel the sun and water? I know that we sure did! As usual you can click on a picture to make it bigger.

You feel the excitement that he had going down the water slide all by himself.

Sam sure could feel the sun in his eyes as I called his name to try to see how much longer he was going to do the lazy river.

I can feel my heart go "pitter-patter" every time I look at that sweet face.
You could also feel my heart go "pitter-patter" when I see him do stunts.

Sam had fun feeling the water splash all over him.

If you'd like to see more FEEL pictures just click on the icon above.

Looking At The Sky On Friday

Okay so it's already Saturday and I forgot to post my Looking At The Sky On Friday picture so I'm doing it now. This was my view Thursday afternoon and today. I took Sam to Hawaiian Falls and had a great time relaxing while he was out having fun in the water. I also had fun in the water but I also had a lot of fun lounging around. If you'd like to see more sky pictures just click the icon above.

Booking Through Thursday

Here is this weeks topic: “This can be a quick one. Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.”

1. Little House On The Prairie (all of them)
2. Harry Potter (all of them)
3. Eric by Doris Lund
4. The Bible
5. Lighthouse by Eugina Price (the whole trilogy)

So...does it count that there really are more than 15 books listed here even though I only wrote down 5?

What are yours? If you'd like to see more answers head on over to here.

I ♥ Faces - Pets

This weeks theme over at I ♥ Faces is - "Anything Goes". This special category is "Pets", but participants are more than welcome to enter a photo of any animal (it does not necessarily have to be a pet.) If you'd like to see more pictures just click on the icon above.

As soon as I read this I knew exactly the picture I wanted to enter. This is a picture of our cat Murphy. One morning while getting ready for work I went out to our living room to put on my shoes. I sat down on our ottoman and looked up to see Murphy resting on the arm of our couch. The sun was streaming in our front window and he was enjoying being bathed by the warmth. Our living room walls were a pale yellow and the sun was just bouncing off of them too. I leaned down to grab my camera, shot this picture and went to work. This is the picture that I realized that I got. I love how our yellow walls behind him came out black. It is one of my all time favorites of him.

Locks Of Love

Last Friday morning I had my hair cut for Locks of Love. I've been wanting to do this for quite some time now but have never had the patience to keep growing my hair. I would always give up a few inches shy of the required 10" that they needed and get it cut. But I finally made it! I have donated 10" and with the styling I ended up with a total of 12"-13" completely cut off. It took me roughly a little bit more than a year to grow it out this long from the last time I got it cut. Then it was just past my shoulders. So the way it grows it won't take long for it to be long again. If you can do this I would highly recommend that you donate your hair as they are always in need of more donors. Here are some before and after pictures for you.

Here I am before the first cut is made.

The first cut.

Done!

Here I am with my hair all wrapped up.

After photos of my hair. I took these this evening. It's not easy to take a picture of the back of your own hair by yourself. This is it natural. I'm still learning how to style it.

Rangers Game ~ For A Job Well Done!

We found out last week that Sam passed the Math portion of the TAKS test. He had already passed the reading portion and so now we wanted to celebrate. We took him to a Texas Rangers game last Friday. It was a double header and with it being a Friday night game there were fireworks! Dr. Pepper was doing a promotion for tickets at half price. So, the three of us got to see two games, fireworks, $5 parking for it being Friday all for $50! Can't beat that! Not to mention that the Rangers WON BOTH GAMES! We are so proud of Sam for passing both of these major tests. This is the first year of many for him and we hope that he does as well in the years to come as he has done this year. Remember that you can click on the pictures to see them full size.

We arrived a little bit before 4:00 that afternoon. Found our seats and realized that they were great seats!

Here you can see the star that they cut into the infield.

Happy boy. Baseball and pizza...what else could he want.

Panorama of the field.

PhotoHunt - Books

This weeks theme over at PhotoHunt was Books. I didn't take any new pictures this week because, honestly, I forgot. So into my my photo archives I go. If you'd like to see more "book" pictures just click the icon above.

Sam at the library reading books. It's hard to get him out of there some days. The next picture of the books are books from my grandfather. They are very special to our family.

Sam a few years back when he got his reading glasses.

Looking At The Sky On Friday

We were all outside in our front yard last night, Andy and Sam were playing catch, and I noticed the beautiful sky. So, of course, I went back inside and got my camera. Here is what we saw.

If you'd like to see some more amazing pictures just head on over to Crazy Working Mom and check them out.

You Capture - Family

The theme for You Capture this week was Family. My first thought was to take a picture of our family. But you know me...I like to think outside the box. I then remembered this past Christmas when my parents gave their three grand kids and my sister and I a notebook containing a lot of our family history. Our family history is very important to us and we even have a published book! Here are some of the pictures that I took while it was all being presented to us.

Here is my Dad holding just a portion of our family tree. This is just following the males on my Dad's side of the family.

My Dad had Sam read the front of his notebook out loud because his is completely different than the others. For those of you that don't know or haven't figured it out...Sam is adopted. Sam now loves to learn more about his family history.

Here you see my sister, her two girls, and her husband. You can see all the individual notebooks as we follow along with my Dad.

Here my line of the family.

This one is a picture of my great grandfathers birthplace in Midland, Kings County, New Brunswick, Canada.

If you'd like to see more "Family" pictures just click on the icon above.