Breast Cancer Awareness Month

A post in honor of those who have fought breast cancer and those who are still fighting. I have a great way to show your support. Avon has the funnest tote for sale. They have combined the artwork of our beloved Finnish design Marimekko with the fight for breast cancer and have this tote available for $10. It is big enough to fit your sauna stuff ... your knitting stuff ... your overnite things. After seeing it, I ordered another one.

Inside zipper pocket as well as two other little pockets to hold cell phone or whatnot. 

If you're interested in adding to your bag stash, and don't have an Avon dealer in your neighborhood, they are available at their website online.

Graduation pictures ... yet again!

I have a huge dilemna.
I was home early again today. The sky was cloudy earlier and the sun was bright when we headed out. Love the sun. Prefer the hidden sun for photos.
The dilemna is this.
Our third, and middle child, one is never without his hat on. I mean NEVER. The church bench and the dinner table are the exceptions. Other than that ... it goes with him everywhere ... on his noggin. It has for more than just a several years.
You must understand that I'm the mom who would tell the professional photographer to just take the picture if the pacifier was in the baby's mouth. That was normal.
What to do about this one? The hat wearing one?

Like I said ... the sun was bright ...

and I learned today that he is afraid of heights ... like his mom. 

What do you mean ... you won't come help me down?! 

This is our Brock ... the way we see him every day that we get to share with him. 

This one I never see. Glasses and no hat?? 

Just because .... it was fun. :)

Anyone want to borrow a drop cloth? Nature paints them absolutely beautiful here in our world.

This one ... maybe.

THIS ... is the real thing.

What am I to do? Take a vote. I'm seriously leaning toward putting a photo of him in a hat on the wall ... what do you think?

This much crafting should be ...

illegal! (I'll be back on the weekend's crafting when I have photos.)

Yes ...  we are picture less at the moment. My regular computer is having issues today. I went to attempt defrag on it this morning. That is a first. I've never done that before. Dear Hubby is the computer guru around here. I just want it to work when I turn it on. I would also like it to work at a relatively rapid speed. A speed where I can't have time to read the Encyclopedia Britanica while waiting for one page to load.  I digress. You would not believe what I found when I hit that little button this morning. Not enough space left on my computer to even defrag it. Only 4% space available. I know I'm a busy person, but that is ridiculous!

Now what to do. I started deleting. Microsoft Money went away. Who needs it anyway. Just spend what little you have on the lot you need and wing the rest. Just think of all the time I saved by getting rid of that thing. :)  Next went some print program that hasn't been touched since 2007.

Next went pictures. Lots of them. I use Picasa for playing around with photos. I have Adobe but you really don't want to hear that story. The problem (unless I have it set up wrong) with Picasa is that every photo I load onto the computer also goes to Picasa. So let's say I take 300 pictures in a day. They are not only filed by date as my camera loads to My Pictures, then they also all copy to Picasa when I open it to fix ONE measly picture. I started deleting the Picasa ones. Started.

I'm now at 10% available space.

Absolutely ridiculous.

Tomorrow I am going to WalMart.
I am going to purchase an external hard drive.
I am going to move all photos to that bugger.

I hope I don't have to install something ... might have to delete more photos first.

Then I'm hoping I can do something else. I don't know enough about computers to know if this will work. I have a Mac. In fact ... I'm sitting in front of it at the moment. The Mac has a dvd burner. So this is the plan. I'll probably found out in a hurry that it won't work.

Photos onto external thing.
Plug external thing into mac.
Load photos onto virtually empty hard drive (if the Mac has such a thing).
Burn to dvd.
Voila.

I'm assuming this won't work ... makes too much sense to me. :)

And guess what? This computer does have a few photos on it after all!

Two days in a row!

You'll understand.
Very shortly.

So, I came home from work today after getting out 15 minutes early, and was on my bed underneath a blanket at about the time I should be leaving work.
Perfect.
Up again in an hour.
Brewed a pot of coffee. (It is a habit. I didn't drink any of it.)
Asked the girls (my littles) what they wanted for dinner.
Looked in the fridge and told them to help themselves to leftovers ... took my blanket ... and hit the couch.
In a most awkward position that should have my neck crooked by the time I woke up.
Jari called.
Alyx called.
I slept.
I heard Brock come and go.
I heard Fred come and go.
I heard Anna say she didn't feel so hot either.
I slept some more.
Then it was sometime after 9pm and I finally listened to Tia tell me for the hundreth time that my neck was going to hurt if I didn't move. She'd been shooing me off to my bed for quite a while by now. I wasn't listening any better than she ever does when I try do that.
I made myself a yummy piece of peanut butter toast ... grabbed a gigantic cup of ice water ... 3000 mg of vit C ... some oil potions ... and sat here for a minute. Have blog hopped from Northern MN to Northern Arizona to the north of Alaska to the city of Phoenix ... may as well blog a moment myself.

Hubby left today for the North Slope. He'll be gone until he is ready to come home. Maybe a little longer than that .. he really does like to be home. Even if our house seems to be run by hormonal teens and their hormonal mother. Poor guy.

Alyx is off vacationing in Minnesota. She left on Monday. Wonder what she was calling about this evening. I'll have to call her back when I'm awake.

My house is really quiet .. and feeling rather large at the moment. People holed up in their own corners ... sleeping or drawing.

I'm going back to my comfy spot ... under the blanket. Let's hope tomorrow goes a wee bit better. I'm On Call and it could be a very long day.

The seasons ... they are a changin'

In a few short days we have gone from what was probably the last beautiful day of fall to the chilly air and whipping winds of what feels like winter.

Wednesday Anna wanted me to try and take school pictures. It was beautiful out there! The trees were still full of leaves ... the skies were beautiful blue ... and the temp outside was a delight.

The last day of Summer.

Outside we went ... and got it done. What a miracle. School pictures done and it's only September. Major, and I mean major, accomplishment for me in the last couple of years! Senior pictures left to do for Brock ... soon!

Thursday the wind started to blow ... and I don't mean a little blowing ... I mean big time. That is normal winter activity around here. The horror of the wind. It didn't stop. Today, Tuesday, many people are still without power. Trees are still sitting on power lines. Crews working nonstop to clean up the mess. We only had small flickers of power issues and never lost ours. Amber called me Thursday and told me I had to go take a camera out to greet the moon. I love it when she does that! We really need to figure out a system for Northern Lights photography. A party phone line or something. A calls B and says "run" ... B calls C to pass the message ... that kind of thing. I'm much too old to stay up and wait for them anymore (not that I ever did)!

Was glad I ran out ....

sort of bummed that I took a quick nap first and light had faded a bit. Last year on the First Day of Autumn this mountain was covered with snow for the first time of the year.

  

On into a weekend that was chalk full.

Friday evening Home Services at our house. The wind hasn't stopped. It is horrific sounding. It can be still for a moment and then you hear the freight train coming from the north. It gets louder and louder ... and it's there. 78mph gusts of wind between Palmer and Wasilla on Friday night. I slept through it. Not much keeps this girl awake anymore. Bending trees and leaves being thrown to the next town. Only the most stubborn leaves are left on the trees. We only lost one tree. We were extremely fortunate.

Saturday I said "enough" to responsibility and just decided to have some fun. Material on the kitchen table ...  a book playing to keep my mind occupied ... and then hubby came home with chickens. Off to clean out the greenhouse temporarily. 4 chickens. Start praying for them. I certainly didn't do right by the last ones! Evening visiting to see the newest Hillukka family addition. What a blessing!

And then there was Sunday. Sitting on the porch in the morning and listening to that wierd sound of something hitting the roof. I thought I knew what it was. I just quite couldn't believe it. A look out the front door was proof enough. Snow was falling ... not much ... but snow it was. Then the clouds lifted on Sunday ... and I just had to run after church to a few favorite picture snapping spots real quick.

The change continues.

Leaves head off to start the journey into next spring.

Snow starts to fill the moutains that in the spring will feed the trees .. bringing back the lush of summer.

  

Sunlight is still with us.

The sun actually setting in the west where I always thought it did.

Soon ... it will be rising and setting in the south.

And on that note .... there are less than 3 months until Christmas!

5 minutes ....

PARKING is what the sign says.

5 minutes to catch sunshine.

5 minutes to catch leaves changing on the lake

5 minutes to catch smiling faces.

5 minutes to revel in awesome silliness.

5 minutes to giggle before heading home to make dinner.

In a life that can be very busy ...

it only takes 5 minutes ...

to keep a mom smiling for years to come ...

My world as I see it.