Came home from the grocery store...

... and I found this.

I made dinner in silence. I'm paying for it now. It's almost 4am and Bailey is showing no signs of slowing down. Getting her back on schedule will be my first project as soon as everyone here is over the killer cold that Brandon brought home last week.

I'm finally getting to see how sharp my Tamron lens can be when it's not wide open in low light (where it doesn't excel like the 17-55 does). Did some stuff with flash tonight to test a new flash bouncer I'm going to make now that I've worked out the pattern.

Some of the random shots I took while testing. Nothing special, just seeing what it could do with no light.

Just one more week of school. This week we really NEED to get Brandon early and run him over to what we hope will be his new school. If he feels good about it, it's a go. One more thing checked off the list.

Still conflicted about the pros and cons of church membership and the idea of jumping through the hoops of converting to a new denomination when I know it doesn't change one single thing about what I believe. What's the advantage? Lower tuition? Not a big deal -- it's a steal compared to Rock Prairie. A sense of belonging for Brandon. A very good thing, indeed. But at what cost? The commitment to a new church and the guilt of inevitably falling short of my obligation to the church, maybe to the detriment of Brandon's good standing. So much pressure.

More processing from today...

I thought it would be fun to put together a quick Flash movie to show the differences between the original and processed files. Roll over the finished image to reveal the unprocessed file, then roll out again to restore the edit.

No Pictures from Friday...

I took a few of our Mother's Day lunch with our parents today, but nothing worth sharing. I guess I was just having a low key day, recovering from my 6 days of being solely in charge of these little people. Brian's flight was canceled and he didn't make it home on Friday. He got here today with no time to spare. He hadn't slept all night, so he spent a lot of the day pretending to be awake.

We went to the park again on Friday after school. JUST TWO MORE WEEKS OF SCHOOL!! This time we hit a small park near our house. It's one of those parks where teenagers hang out on the basketball courts not playing basketball. I'm never comfortable there alone with the kids, so when the only other family left, we followed along. We were only able to play for half an hour, but it was cold and I had stuff to do.

Playdate Thursday

Brandon looks forward to his playdate all week. I do when I can leave Bailey at home. When she tags along, it's more like a workout for me. I lie. It's nothing like a workout. If it were a workout, I'd be enjoying a good book... ALONE. I just get tired of chasing her.. up, down, around, up, down, around... but it wouldn't occur to me to leave the camera at home no matter how much easier it would make it for me. ;)

I know, I know... it's the backyard again.

Brandon begged me to take him "somewhere fun" after school, but I could sense he was not in the mood to stay near me. I know he really tries to stay close and not disappear, but he "just likes to explore." We had a long talk about the difference between really, really *wanting* to stay close and stick with Bailey and actually doing it.

Just 2 more days until Brian gets home. Just one more load of laundry to fold and I'm free to... create more laundry.

So, the backyard it is and some pretty terrible snapshots.

Brandon's Personal Day

Brandon took the day off of school today. I wish I could say he had a good reason, but that would be a lie. It feels terrible sending him to school when he isn't happy there, but we've done it for months. Kindergarteners should not cry in the morning at the thought of going to school. The life of a kindergartener shouldn't be this stressful. There are just a few weeks left, then he can move on -- hopefully before his feelings toward school are solidified forever.

Spent more time outside, saw a couple more bunnies (a vast bunny army is mobilizing behind our house), and wasted the day away.

Day one...

... down, four days to go until Brian gets home. Then it's the weekend and Mother's Day so I can get a break to keep me busy entertaining our moms. It turns out that stuff gets done if I just do it. I don't want laundry and cleaning hanging over my head on "my day" -- and doing it all myself is the only way it's going to get done.

Went outside tonight after dinner. It's still cool enough to be comfortable and the bugs are still in hiding. Bailey won't keep sand in the sandbox and she learned quickly that big brother is not to be trusted as a swing pusher. Brandon can do flips on our rings just like at gymnastics -- they're holding our spot in the ER (not really... jerks).

Really sick of having a west-facing backyard. It really messes up my evening picture mojo. Perfect reason to move, no?

A jumbled mess of green is appearing in my front flower beds, but it's not going to get a chance to get too cozy. The whole thing has to go. I was so embarrassed at how out of control the front got at the end of last season. No more Mrs. Niceygarden. You're OUTTA HERE!

Yeah, it's SPAM. I won't apologize for it.

You know what? I won't. I grew up in Hawaii and we like our spam. In fact, last I checked (because I spend a lot of time checking out statistics related to spam), we liked it more than any other state. Even though I no longer live there, I still miss only one thing about my home -- the food. Lately I've realized that I have resources that have largely been untapped. I *can* make the food I remember here at home -- with recipes from the internet and ingredients that might not be perfect but are definitely close enough.

Did I mention it's light spam? Yeah, they have that. Really. They have turkey spam, too. For those who don't spend much time in the "canned meat" aisle, this is important information. Right? There are a lot of closet spam lovers out there. Don't even sit there and roll your eyes at me. You know who you are.

This is my second time making my own sushi. My technique is improving, but I think it tasted better the first time around. No doubt because I hadn't yet discovered that light spam existed and so the guilt hadn't forced me to substitute for the low calorie version.

This stuff gives it quite a kick. I usually only use a dot per piece, but I was feeling adventurous. Yep, extra hot chili sauce is as close to adventure as I'm gonna get.

This is really all wrong, but my usual spam musubi is just not in the plan anymore. This is a compromise so I don't eat a whole day's worth of calories at one meal. I was shocked at the number of calories in the rice alone -- even more than the entire portion of spam. 190 calories for 1/4 cup! Seriously. But rice is rice and can't really be substituted.

I'm off to find out what's for dinner.

Dinner for Finny!

Experimenting with a bit of flash mixed with outdoor ambient light.

Bailey made a mess and Finny might be scarred for life, but he's a tough fishy and he can take it. With years of therapy he may even come out of his treasure chest again.