Happy Birthday

 

Words are inadequate to express how joyfully glad I am to extend this happy birthday to my mom. She is the most generous kind hearted person I have ever met, yet she loves fiercely. I have watched her sacrifice daily for me and my sister, her mother, sisters and brothers, nieces and nephews, friends, neighbors, strangers… even when she was tired. I learned about unconditional love from her. I watched the power of forgiveness flow through her life. I can only hope my life will be such a great witness to my children someday, an example to future generations. And I am so very proud of her too! She continually pursues her goals, advancing, and becoming her best. My greatest wish for her is to rest and receive back some of the love and kindness she has doled out and continues to pour over us.

Happy Birthday Mom! May your everyday see you living life to its full, reaping joy and peace.

Love Forever, your favorite eldest daughter and son in love!

Developed in the Dark

 

Darkroom that is! You know how you intend to do something that you enjoy, but everything else gets in the way? It is that way with me and the darkroom. Truly developing film and image processing is one of my favorite things to do. It’s just that with my company keeping me so busy with digital image processing, I haven’t had the time. Soooo when my assistant CJ showed interest in learning darkroom techniques I was only too thrilled!

                             

I must admit, I may have gone overboard, trying to cram about a years worth of experience into a jumbled mass of information in what amounts to an 8 hour day, but my goodness, look at her negatives!

                             

Just gorgeous I tell you. I kept myself from making any prints since they are her images, but hopefully I can get her to share.

That being said, look for the new Make It Better posting coming soon. The topic will be self portraits.

Funny Side Story

 

So you know how I was checking on the garden everyday right? Well here’s the thing. Because I put the tomato cages up, to hold the space, I forgot we didn’t actually PLANT the tomatoes! So while I was all giddy about them sprouting, half way through the week I realized they weren’t going to, because they weren’t even there! Oh gosh! A quick trip to the hardware store on Earth Day fixed that! That is why they are so huge. They are doing well don’t you think?

Garden Geek

 

With so many projects on our list, it seemed as if we’d never get to our garden. So we took a day last week and tilled and planted. YAY! Every day I run out to see what has sprouted, and yes, I do laugh at myself. I feel like the woman from that popular commercial “open open open” well my diligence has paid off! Our garden is sprouting!

    

Last year we had too much of some things and not enough of others, so this year we planted have two 6ft x 4ft raised cedar beds, and we spaced things out a bit.

 

	GARDEN BED 1				GARDEN BED 2
okra 7-14 germinate 55-60 days full grown	Tomato	okra 7-14 germinate 55-60 days full grown			cotton	potatos	bok choi and cotton
tomato	loose leaf lettuce moist soil 10-14 days germinate 40-60 days full sized	tomato			carrots	collards	bok choi
bell pepper 10-12 germinate 75 days full grown	strawberry				carrots	spinach	cabbage
yellow water melon	watermelon	onion 10-21 days germinate 60-120 days full sized			green beans	green beans	green beans

I can hardly wait for the okra and my cotton to sprout! That being said, the carrots and potatoes came up from last years composting (the way my Fav plants), and the strawberries and mint remained and are doing quite well. Well the mint migrated. We did try getting rid of it, but it moved to the center on its own, and really, I kinda like how it flavors the other veggies from the cross pollination. All in all, I am geeked about our garden, and am looking forward to this years crop. Watermelon anyone?

Sleeping Baby – AJ. Baby Dedication

 

I’m convinced! This young man can sleep through ANYTHING! Here are a few teasers from his dedication. Such a handsome little fella, and a fantastic family too!

    

                               

Jr. Prom

 

AC is such a vivacious young lady! I hope you had fun (but not too much) at your Junior Prom! Here are a couple of teasers for you, even one with the lovely KD. Enjoy!

           

A Change of Plans

 

So we didn’t make it to the Farmer’s Market, but we did get to partake of my sisters newest recipe experimentation, a cabbage and brussel sprouts pasta. Sounds special but it was very good. Go Sissy! It was a very enjoyable evening of food and conversation. A fitting end to a productive day!

                          

This lady can cook! <3

Alone Time

 

I can hardly recall a time when my father and I spent any real quality time alone. I must say I enjoyed walking and talking with him as I tried to introduce him to my fair city. He doesn’t seem very impressed lol. As fantastic as I believe my city to be, and as much as it tries to be a “hip, happening” place, there is still this quietness, a homespun awesomeness that gives this truly booming upcoming metropolitan city a little house on the prairie feel that I hope it never loses. And even though this place may not be as buzzing as Los Angeles, there is no other place I could imagine us peacefully spending some alone time. Maybe tomorrows Farmers Market with live music in the streets of downtown Lancaster, will be exciting enough to woo him back. I don’t really know. I’ll just enjoy these moments with my dad until he leaves to his “real” life in a few weeks. 

                                    

Smelling Roses

 

                         

This past Sunday, I was presented this beautiful bouquets of roses from the participants of our Resurrection Sunday Production. I am so honored and humbled to have received them but I would be remiss to take all the credit. I worked with some really wonderful people. Minister Dane, Linda, Fannie, the actors, singers, dancers, audio, and video crews, and those who came along side me, making things better at exactly the right time, Courtney, Kathy, Chenise, DJ, Jaden, Lawrence and Lynn, and most dearly to me are the two who stood beside me, listening to the same music over, and over, who from the beginning gave 100 percent to the ideas in my head, My Fav, and my Sis. Thank you all so very much. Thank you for yielding your gifts and talents to make this the awesome production it was.