Are They Listening?

Sometimes I'm absolutely convinced that these children are deaf. They never respond to anything that I tell them unless it benefits them. Yeah. Yeah, mom. I know. Payback's hell.

And then something happens to make you realize that yes, in fact they do hear you --- mind you I said hear and not listen to -- and sometimes that's not necessarily a good thing.

These times include, but definitely aren't limited to, when they:

a) Repeat something a snarky comment that you've made about someone - to that person.

b) Tell someone that you're going somewhere not realizing that you had already told that same person that you had other plans to get out of something. OR

c) Repeat a four or six letter word and it's always in class or in front of your most religious neighbor.

Well, this isn't quite as bad as those I suppose but it did make me giggle when I was reviewing Shane's homework. It confirmed for me at that moment that, yes, they do hear you every now and then.

What is it? Well, those that know us will pick right up on it.

Have fun finding it. Click on the image to enlarge it.



I wonder what his teacher thought when she saw it. Haha. Good one, Shane! :up:

Tennis Anyone?

Shane's been taking tennis lessons since school started. He asked me if I thought that he and his friend Josie could play mixed doubles against Roger Federer and Serena Williams. He thinks that they have a chance at winning. LOL.

I thought that the grandparents would like to see his lessons. I also thought that his Aunt Liz would like to see it since she's a tennis player. I know that he'd love to play with her.

Enjoy!

volleys!



forehand!



forehand/backhand!

Ironic Photo of the Day

Sometimes you see something and you stop and think to yourself "Really? What were they thinking?"

Well, this was one of those times. We were in Charlotte to celebrate Scott and Celena's birthdays and went to Rock Hill to eat at the White Horse. As we drove down Cherry Road, we passed this restaurant and I had to go back and get a photo.



Somehow the words "Tequila" and "Family Restaurant" don't really belong together. That's funny!

Pictures Of The Day

It's been a while since I've posted some of my favorite pictures that I've taken recently. And since I'm cleaning out three months worth of pictures, I thought that I'd put some up.

Enjoy!

My friend Celena is a potter and owns The Whirling Wheel, in Charlotte, NC. Her studio is awesome! If you're in the area, I'd recommend visiting it and taking some classes. :)



Don't most women love babies? At my friend Celena's birthday party, our friend Gina brought her new baby to meet everyone. I love capturing people in moments like that where they don't have their cheesy faces on and are just being themselves. I just love this picture. It's just so real.



Celena and Scott are friends of ours from college. Their birthdays are only a few days apart so they celebrate them together every year. This year was a big celebration for CJ. She turned the big 4-0.



One of CJ's friends made this cake for her birthday. How yummy does it look? I can assure you that it tasted just as good. :)



And, last but certainly not least, I love this picture of CJ and her friends. I had a couple of posed shots but this one was the winner. So real and shows their personality and connection with each other.



I hope that you enjoyed these because I sure loved taking them. :)

How To Tell

How do you know when your sweet baby boy is no longer a baby? Well, a good indication is when....

1) their pits stink and you think you're going to die when they lift their arm; and

2) when you run out of socks and go into their drawer to borrow a pair...and they fit.

Meh.

He's So Fat

Kids are just so mean.

Shane told Ken that some kids on the bus called him fat the other day.

Shane responded to them that "yes...I sure am P-H-A-T".

LOLOLOL.

Well, at least he has a sense of humor about it. I asked Ken if he was upset and he said he didn't seem like it. He was just super proud of his come back. :up:

Computer Woes

Somewhere, somehow, I must have really made someone mad (well, duh!) and they put a curse on my computers, which is the reason for the sporadic posting on my blog. Our main computer crashed about two months ago and the external hard drive with all of my pictures was destroyed. With no backup. Because our backup wasn't working properly. I'm sure that you can imagine how distraught I was about that.

Then we got a new computer but the transfer didn't take completely and the documents that I actually use were the ones that didn't get transferred. Of course.

So I've been going back and forth between the two computers to try and piece meal together work. Because, of course, the computer with my documents that I actually use on it isn't connected to the printer or scanner now.

And the new computer has internet connectivity only sporadically but it has printing capabilities. Which is good for documents that need to be printed. But bad when I need to do work online (which I frequently do) to print out the receipts as proof that the work was done.

And my scanning won't work correctly because the updated Acrobat that was put on the new machine saves the document immediately and won't allow you to edit it before saving it. (IE - cutting out excess around pictures and the such.) Nor will it allow me to save pictures as jpeg files. Well, maybe it will. I just haven't been able to figure it out yet.

But we have a laptop. Which is good. Well, it's good when the mouse works (which it's not right now) and the internet works (which somehow it is now but wasn't yesterday) but it's never connected to the printer because I can't get it to connect up to the network to print.

And, of course, the pictures that I've taken in the last two months are on this computer but since I have no mouse (even on the computer), I can't post them.

Ugh. Frustrating. It's gotten to the point where I'm starting to forget which computer has which documents on it and which computer has which capabilities.

And the most frustrating thing is, it all seems to work right when Ken's here.

Who said that computers were suppose to make things easier? Well, they lied!

Happy Monday!

Mom, Why Does Nanny Look So Weird?

A few weeks ago, Shane walked by my curio cabinet and saw a picture of whom he thought was my mom. He asked me why Nanny looked so weird.

I asked him what in the world was he talking about and he pointed at this picture.


I laughed when I saw the picture that he was pointing to because it wasn't Nanny -- it was her mom Doris. I told Shane that it was his great grandmother and she looked weird because the picture was taken many years ago when the clothing and hair styles were different.

I started laughing because my mom and I have talked about many times that she looks more and more like Doris as she gets older.

But, I'm sure that she wouldn't mind being compared to the younger Doris because she was quite pretty when she was younger).

How Did You Spend Inauguration Day?

The inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United States was historical no doubt. How did you spend the day?

Did you fight the crowds of people to go and stand in the freezing cold for hours to be a part of history, as Ken did?





I love this picture. If you look closely on the dome of the Capitol, there is a balcony underneath the statute. Congressmen and Senators use to be able to take groups on tours up there. You had to climb a ladder on the original dome to get up there. Very cool view!





Ken met Martin Luther King Jr. the day before the inauguration near the Capitol.



Did you go to work like normal and somehow escape all of the news coverage?

Or did you enjoy the day off of work or school and watch the coverage on CNN, as Shane, Owen and I did.



Shane intently watched the inauguration, asking questions about who the people were who were being introduced.



And Owen was being, well, Owen. :p



After President Obama had done his first swearing in, the kids were ready to have some fun.



Did you spend your Inauguration Day decorating TIVO-MAN cookies like we did? Nothing says hail to the new chief like Patriotic TIVO-MAN cookies.



But, while I was busy helping Owen, Shane was busy piling on the icing for his cookie and had already bitten off the antenae before I could stop him. Shocking, I know.



Introducing Patriotic TIVO-MAN.



Introducing Presidential TIVO-MAN.



Shane made the best TIVO-man cookie...introducing TIVO-MEH-MAN.



And the "What the heck was she thinking?" award goes to Aretha Franklin for her selection of her hat.



So now that the excitement of the inauguration is over, we have a new president and administration and whether or not you voted for him or not, let's all support him and hope that he can move the country into a more positive direction.

He sure is going to need all the good vibes we can send him.

An Answer to Ginny's Question...What Is It?

"It" is stupid kids.



As soon as it started to snow, Shane took his blanket and one of my couch pillows outside and bundled up to watch the snow.



As I've mentioned before, kids are stupid. And that's why we love them. I wish I were a stupid kid again.