90 - My Favorite Day

Get ready, this post is chock full of pictures. Today was antiquing day! The first weekend in April and first weekend in October are reserved for going "antiquing" in the Round Top/Warrenton area. Vendors from all over come out and display their wares in tents, on tables, in old buildings, just everywhere. Doug and I LOVE going out there. Seriously. I've been going for years, and was delighted that Doug actually likes antiques too! I always feel like it's a treasure hunt, you never know what you are going to find. Half my house is decorated with stuff from these trips. One of the best parts of going out in April is seeing all of the beautiful wildflowers on the side of the road. Warrenton has a population of like 77, and is out in the country - it's a wonderful drive out there, with the pastures and small towns. The past 3 or 4 trips out there we have gone with our friends Becky and Josh (who also happens to be the pastor of our church). They love to go out to Warrenton as much as we do, so it's great to have them as our travel and shopping partners. Since the baby came with us this time, I made sure to bring our saddle and bucket from home for photo props for pics in the flowers. I took several pictures today, so here we go.....

The name of this building says it all! Look at all that stuff! Some people just see junk, I see possibilities.

I always see tons of things that would make great photo ops. I loved this little bicycle - but it was $650!!! It was a salesman sample. Whatever.

Doug thought this lamp would make a nice addition to our home. Since we don't live in a Frat House, I disagreed.

Made sure baby had plenty of protection from the sun.

A modest statue.....

Need any boots?

Or vintage ornaments?

Just thought these looked cool.

Josh and Becky, being agreeable to my photo op.

And now for some bluebonnets!

My little cowboy.

Baby in a Bucket

We stopped on the way home and took a few more pictures - we bought this fun apple box (original label from the 1950's) and thought it would be a cute picture. Thank goodness Baby E doesn't seem to mind being my model! I love this little critter so much it HURTS. Awesome day, can't wait for the October one!

89 - more babies, including me

It was a beautiful spring day today, too pretty of a day to be in a bad mood, and yet I was. It should be against the law to be cranky in beautiful weather, or physically impossible. Six months after giving birth, I am finding that I am still very sensitive for some reason; it doesn't take much these days I suppose to hurt my feelings. I blame changing hormones from pregnancy. It's nice to have something to blame it on. A remark from my husband (or really, lack of expected remark, but that's another story) this morning set my tone for the day. A phone call with my sister didn't help, as I whined that she doesn't call enough or show enough interest in my life or my baby. When really, what I wanted to say to husband was, "I felt taken for granted," and to sister, "I miss you and your friendship, I value your input and wish we were not drifting apart." Why is it so hard to say what we really mean? But the day carried on; took baby E to the park, and took pictures of a friend's newborn (well, she's more like 5 or 6 weeks old). So those are the pictures I will post, as I can't post pictures of my whiny-ness, and not sure I would want to even if that were possible. Because who would want to look at that. Here's more interesting pictures for you:

Who needs a play pen when you have a perfectly good laundry basket....

Hi Lucy!

Don't know why I like this out of focus picture, it's something to do with the shadow on the ground. I wanted to get E more in motion, but just didn't feel like really experimenting with shutter priority. So, this COULD have been cooler. It was that kind of day. A lot COULD have been better.

One of my favorites from the photo shoot today. We didn't move her outside until the end and she was getting cranky. Would have liked to experimented more in front of the door to this gorgeous home.

The shot where I got more of the door in the picture, the baby was crying! ergh. Oh well.

Last one, sweet baby in daddy's hands.

88 - craft?.....

These are just a craft project waiting to happen....so many possibilities....can't.throw.away......

87 - that Good Ol' Baylor Line

I have to admit, I never wear my Baylor ring. When I first graduated, I bought a gold coin Baylor ring for my senior ring. I worked and saved the entire summer before my senior year for that ring. It was the Baylor seal on a coin, with little diamond chips around the sides. Unforutunately it got stolen from my apartment about 10 years ago. So, I replaced it with this simpler one, it was all I could afford at the time. As I was going through my box getting out some earrings, I saw the ring, and thought what the heck, let's wear it to the BU basketball game this past Sunday. Sorry to say, it didn't bring us any luck, we lost to Duke. The bears sure played one heck of a game and proved they deserved to be in the Sweet Sixteen!

86 - and now for a REAL picture....

After baby's nap, we went out to a local neighborhood Easter egg hunt - but we were too late! It was all wrapping up by the time we got there. And I was really hoping for some free pics of E with the Easter bunny. It was a beautiful afternoon, so we stopped by a park that we don't normally go to; the playground is surrounded by huge oak trees, and across the lake is this nifty bridge. So of course I took a few pics.

I love how this one turned out! I focused on E then moved the camera, so he is in focus but off-center on purpose. Love the dreamy look of the trees and grass, and of course Mr. Cuteness sitting like such a big boy!

Another angle, with wispy grass in the foreground.

And just for fun. Lounging in the tub, doesn't he look relaxed?!

85 - JCP pics are here!

Yesterday, we were able to pick up our cd of images from our JC Penny's photo shoot from earlier in the month. After seeing the prints I picked out, and viewing the pictures on the cd - was it worth it? Hmmmm. I guess not really worth the amount of money I paid, but there are some cute shots. I find it interesting that on the cd, you get ALL of the images - the good AND the bad. Whenever I take pictures, I throw out the obviously icky ones, because who wants to see their child or family member looking - well, icky? I'll post some of my favorites.

These are Doug's boots and hat. Same ones we used in the birth announcement.

That's E's hat.

Not a big fav, but ok.

I bet I could get a cuter one with a blanket at home.

And now, a couple just to make you laugh.....

Kind of sums up our experience.....

They actually had an 8x10 of this picture available for me to buy when we picked up the pictures! did they even LOOK at it?!

I'm not going to say I'll never do studio pics again, but for now, will stick to doing our own outside shots!

pics 84 - what are YOU lookin' at?

Went to a free little park today to check out some animals. Beautiful day for it! At times E seemed more interested in his stroller strap than looking at the animals, but all in all it was good. Shooting the animals through a chain link fence - not so good. But this is one of my favorites! Here are a few more:

pics 83 - just another Wednesday

Today was just a Wednesday. Nothing out of the ordinary really, unless you count the plumber coming to fix the leak under the sink. Baby took both his naps just fine, and actually took TWO bottles from ME this afternoon, so that was exciting, as we are slowly working on the weaning thing. I did my best not to scratch my lovely shingles rash thing I have going on, and washed my hands a lot while handling the baby. Paid bills. Made a few phone calls and emails for church stuff. We weren't "feeling" our leftover meatloaf for dinner so went to Chili's. Just doing my regular, new job of stay at home and run this household and raise my child. So, here's a few pictures of just life from today -

Why would I want MY toy when there is a very interesting placemant RIGHT HERE? What made it even more appealing is that it was almost out of my reach but I twisted myself until I almost fell out of this bumbo chair and I got it!

Playing with Daddy after my bath (pj's were upstairs so we had some "diaper time")

I told Doug to put their faces next to each other so we could compare them to see how much he looks like Doug. Some days I really see Doug in him and his expressions. I have a hard time seeing pieces of me in E.

Sweetness!

82 - a tisket, a tasket, here is Eli's basket

We had these cute little hand-made Easter baskets growing up; a neighbor down the street made them for my brother, sister and myself. I don't remember a time not having the basket, but also don't know exactly when we stopped using them. At some point, the Easter bunny starting leaving a big Kegg's chocolate egg for us by our breakfast plates. Here is a picture of my basket:

I thought it would be neat for E to have a basket too - I found these same kind of baskets at Michael's a couple of weeks ago, and had a fun time painting and decorating it.

Don't know if you can see the words or not, but I wrote "He Is Risen" on the three crosses on this side of the basket. Kind of hard to make an Easter basket "masculine," but I figured this one was ok. I guess I can't expect him to use it forever - he may see those kind that look like stuffed trucks in the store and want that instead - but this will do for the first few years I suppose. I know Easter is NOT all about the candy, which is why I included the crosses on his basket. But, it is a fun piece of Easter tradition.

81 - my cool shades

Another picture with my cell phone. These are my cool shades from the eye doctor's office. Since I had my eyes dilated and was wearing glasses, they have these nifty shades for glasses-wearing folks. And, it's been kind of a blah day, dealing with my lovely "shingles," so wasn't inspired to take pictures today. Thank goodness for my mom, who was able to come watch the baby for me today! Thanks Mom, I love you!

80 - emergency rooms stink

Lucky me started having weird eye swelling and itchy rash like stuff on my head, starting Friday night and escalating through the weekend. On Sunday morning, afraid I might have shingles and worried how that might affect the baby, we went to an urgent care center. After 2 hours of waiting, the nurse practioner told me he didn't have the right equipment to fully examine my eye (my main concern, since it was waaaay gross swollen), that I should go to the ER. Sigh. So off we go. After almost 3 hours there, I got to see another nurse practioner who was stumped by symptoms, as it seemed like shingles, but more atypical I guess. She says she has to confer with a physcian. He finally comes in. Basically thinks it's shingles and gets me some prescriptions, and tells me to make more appointments this week to deal with the eye, the rash, the swollen glands. Fun stuff I tell ya. Since I was there for FIVE AND A HALF HOURS, spending a lot of that time waiting in an exam room, I read all the posters on the walls when I was tired of reading the book I had brought. This one line kept bothering me. So I took its picture with my cell phone. I generally hate phone pictures because they are so grainy, etc. I do not have a fancy cell phone. But here is the picture and then I'll explain:

I put the picture in photoshop so I could underline and make a point of what I found so amusing and interesting to me. It says they are committed to "very good care." Not excellent? Not superior? Just "very good?" I guess I'm so used to hearing "bigger" words to define how great a hospital should be at providing care, I just found the words "very good" sort of...lacking. Every time I've been to Memorial I've had good care, it's not like I have some complaint against them. Maybe they should jazz up their language a litttle bit. Or, don't have people sit so long in the waiting room that their signs are analyzed.

79 - Dave's Big 4-0

My big brother David turned 40 this month. We had him come into town this past weekend, and celebrated his birthday with our family and our cousins. Laura made him the cutest cake - David loves going out on his boat, and loves his dog Mindy just as much. Laura found a dog figurine and painted it black with the white 'swoosh' mark on it's chest, just like the real Mindy. She placed the dog on the front of the little speedboat cake. Check it out -

There was even a propeller on the back. She used his birthdate as the license number on the other side.

Eli had a special bib on just for Uncle Dave. I accidently picked the picture with David's eyes closed, sorry Dave.

Close up of the bib - it says, "Uncle David is 40! I don't know what that means but it sounds old."

Everyone also brought a bag of 40 "somethings" to give him. I gave him 40 candy kisses for/from his future wife. My sister gave him fish hooks, so he can catch "the one," and some other fun things like that. My cousin almost gave him a list of 40 single women's names and numbers, but his wife told him that would be too mean! It was a fun time.