Spring Break! Here and Gone!!

Too bad I was too lazy, worn out and broke to do much with the kids this past week! And it was cold till about Thursday. Poor kids only got two days with sunshine. But anywho...

Last weekend I had Saturday night off work which almost NEVER happens, so I went to a concert with my sisters. I'm not sure if I'm up to admitting who it was though, LOL. Wanna take any guesses for fun?? It was so fun to just go out, be a little crazy and hang with my sisters. We haven't been out ALL together for something FUN in a LONG time!!

Then the next morning I got up early and headed to an all day seminar for Nature Photography given by a really neat and pretty renouwn couple in the photography business. It was really informative, a TON of information to process. The things that cracked me up though were the casual way they'd throw in little tips of shooting in the Galapagos Islands or Africa. You know, cause I get there all the time for nature shots. But at least I know what $1,000+ (some as much as $7,000)lenses, tripods and other equipment I might need.

We didn't do anything big and fantastic over DD's break from school, which I feel a little bad about, but summer break will be here soon anyway right? We did make it down to see my sister & brother in law who just had a baby last Thursday. I took about 300 pictures that I have yet to sort and process and upload somewhere for her to see. Maybe I will post some on my Photoblog when I get done.

So here I am back at work this weekend, working an extra night (Easter) which kinda sucks, but I'll get an extra day off next weekend and get another Saturday off!! Rock on! I'm kinda liking this every other weekend of three in a row, than just one shift the next week. I've been trying to see if there's a way to do this every month. Gotta run, work calls!

Coniferous Erecti1e Dy$function...

This is a condition in which the coniferous has trouble staying "up", and suffers a loss of function. This disease/dysfunction may cause others around it to exhibit symptoms such as involuntary fits of laughter, swearing, and sweating. It has also been know to cause rashes of the arms and hands. Although the tree is not erect, it may still emit a clear sticky substance that may stain or cause irritation to others around it. With proper planning and attention, this condition can usually be avoided, however it is sometimes more prevalent when coexisting with cats and small children, and sometimes dumb men.







Whew, all done! And actually I added more garland and overall was happier with how it looked after the second "decorating" party with the kids. We pretty much had to start over. *rolls eyes*. Lets hope the stupid thing doesn't fall again!!!


Stay tuned for lots o' random tree and ornament pics and pics of the kidlets...I think I'll post them on my Photoblog.

A night in the life of an ICU nurse...

Well...a little bit of one anyway. I obviously can't take pics of my patients. But lately I've had my camera in the van for various reasons and when I get to work and I opt to bring it in rather than risk leaving it out in the cold, in the parking lot. Soooo I've had fun torturing my coworkers snapping pics mostly unsuspectingly a few times this month, but I've decided NOT to post those pics cause well...they might not like me for that, LOL. So, this post just got a whole more boring...sorry!


Here's about what time I start to get slap happy and loopy every night/morning! Just ask my friends.









Propofol...the nectar of the sleep gods, milk of amnesia, our favorite sedative. Just a wee little scene from my patients room.



















Pretty good vitals for an ICU pt.

"A fallen leaf is nothing more...

...than a summers wave goodbye." And that folks, is almost exactly how I feel about it! I truly do enjoy and love the autumn colors and all the festivities that come with harvest time and Halloween, and its my favorite time of the year to snap pictures. The warm orange and red glow of early evening sun and the colorful leaves. BUT....my body hates cold weather, I'm pretty sure I've inherited the family peripheral vascular disease. Once the temp drops below an average of 70 or so, I'm cold....really cold, in need of heavy socks 24/7 and several layers of clothing until summer returns again. My cold hands once shocked a patient out of an arrhythmia when I touched her chest....no joke. They get THAT cold. So here we go again, fall is here, all to soon to be followed by winter.

This past weekend was BEAUTIFUL....and we were on vacation....staying in cottages on a lake and it couldn't have been better (except if we could have stayed longer). The kids (hubby included) asked if we could live there. We were in Maple City, not too far from Traverse City kind of in the "pinky" of Michigan. (For all those non-Michiganders reading...hold out your left hand, palm facing away...and there you have a map of MI, nifty huh??) I know I've posted about this place before too. It was actually warm enough for the kids to go swimming. That is almost unheard of up there this time of year. We try to make it a yearly trip. I've been going to the same place for the last 30+ years, as my parents are friends with the owners and took us as kids. Its so wild to see my own kids in the same beds, trees, boats, etc... that I grew up enjoying.

I will finally make my first actual photo posts to my NEW Photo-BLOG I've been slacking. I'm not sure I will be able to keep up with both, but I wanted a place that was a little more dedicated to photography. So I'm thinking I'll post snapshots here and my slightly more serious photography there.

This is KJ *after* I'd just taken him out of his suit and got him dressed. He decided to fall off the dock. Good thing its shallow. I love the facial expression I caught. I'm sure he was thinking "Why aren't you drying me off mom?"


This one is trippy but kinda cool. I like how it turned out.











Kaedon taking what is probably his last Sink-bath!

Party animals, not party poopers....

The past two nights we have been to concerts. Tuesday was at the local gardens that host Tues. night concerts in August. It was free since we have a membership and the kids love it there anyway. We were there pretty late mostly walking around, playing in the children's area, listening to the soulful, relaxing music carried through the warm evening air. Staying out late inevitably led into a discussion about how we are not "party poopers" a phrase of course which my kids found HILARIOUS and giggled at immensely.

Well tonight we went to a pretty big Christian concert hosted by WAY-FM featuring Britt Nicole, Downhere, and Francesca Battistelli. It was held at the big ballpark. This was also free as long as you had a bumper sticker from the radio station. Since I did not have one, at 4:15 I set out to find one, which luckily did not take long. We got to the park really early and were in the first crowd to get through the gate and therefore had AWESOME seats. My kids did remarkably well. Elise loves Britt Nicole so I knew she would likely cooperate, but even my busy little, nap-deprived two year old lasted till almost the very end. You know the most awesome thing (other than the artists and their music) is that (nearly) everyone at an event like that is just SO nice and helpful. A young lady (Johanna, who coincidentally goes to my old church and I remember being just little girl) was sitting next to us, and was SO good and generous in helping and putting up with KJ climbing all over. To top it off I had an extra blessing- a good friend from high school wound up sitting right next to us so she also helped corral KJ and keep him entertained. It was just so crazy that out of the whole place she had a seat saved for her right next to me. Here's a few pics:


*@:Francesca:@*



*~*~Downhere~*~*


And !*!*!BRITT NICOLE!*!*!



I loved all of them, but I have to say that Francesca just has an AWESOME unique voice and I love her style. She plays her own guitar, seems down to earth and just has something extra sweet and cool about her. I haven't been to *real* concert in a long time so it made it extra fun!

Oh, and I can't leave a post without a sweet one of the kids having fun....

I feel lighter....

Cause I just had a bunch of hair cut off!! I've been waiting forever to do it. My original intention was to wait till I had enough to donate to Locks of Love, but I thought it was 9 inches and then found out it was 10 and I am too chicken for a short hair cut. This past week I was going NUTS. Kaedon started using my long skinny ponytail as a handle/swinging vine and I almost took scissors out myself (seriously). It was getting SO tangled all the time I was loosing tons of hair and it really thinned out (not a good thing for already fine thin hair). So, I wouldn't have had much to donate anyway. At least thats what I'm telling myself so I feel less guilty for not donating it. I only get my hair cut a few times a year if that, so its a big even for me, LOL.

I didn't get a chance to take good before pictures so I have some from May that kind of shows almost how long it was (it had grown a couple more inches since then).







And now...sorry they aren't so great, Elise was taking them...

You can kind of see the layered back the second one.


And there's some of Miss Elise playing model for me too.



Don't mind her modeling her nose and dirty feet. I was also having fun playing with my new camera!!

Doing a little construction...

I wanted to find a template that had a separate "page" so to speak for a photo-log, but I'm thinking I might just stick with this simpler format and link to a different site that will host my photo's. Flickr has a "thing" (for lack of a better description in my extreme sleep deprived mind) called 365 where you basically post a picture of the day for 365 days. I can't say that I'd be 100% compliant with this, but I would really like to try. So I'm working on getting that set up. I have some really fun friends on one of my forums (clovercuties- KJ's birth board which has evolved into a exciting lil' community) that are starting up with this too, so I have some inspiration! So I still have to work on all that but for now...this construction crew has to get to bed. I worked Saturday night and then only slept 4 hours, and then spent the rest of the day and night up north at the beach for a family function. I'm soooo fried (fry'd?)! Au Revoir!

A few vacation pics and more....

Here's one of the VERY few pics that actually shows ME and the kids. I asked John to take one since there really is almost no photographic records that I am actually a mother to my children. This is the best he could get and pretty classic of trying to get the kids to cooperate.


And here is a good one of "Zoom-zoom" Zumaya: (I love my camera zoom! We were WAY up in the stadium seats)


Here's one that was really overexposed, but I played with it in B&W and kinda like the efffect:


And a kinda cute one of KJ:



And on a total side note, I hate this blog template...mainly because everyone and their brother is using it too...so I'm in search of something different and fun.

Some pics....

Biking:





Eating our favorite summer treat:



Flowers just for fun...and playing with photoshop a bit: