Day Eighty Five

This is from a couple of weekends ago at the park.

I'm not cheating, but today is our last full day together before our daughter goes back to school, and I don't know how to get this day on film.

I'm going to keep it just for our own.

Day Eighty Four

...Tapping my fingers. Waiting for it (the snow) to go away.

Day Eighty Three

Looking for some Spring Break fun, my daughters and I decided to take a girl day in Bend. We ended up seeing Remember Me with Robert Pattinson (I know, but it looked good anyway) and Emilie De Ravin (from Lost).

Fun day. Great movie.

I love these girls! I'm proud of who they are.

Day Eighty Two

I love this poem.

My son wrote it last year in second grade.

Day Eighty One

Dinner is leftovers on paper plates...

It's Spring Break. So what?

Day Eighty

The Jelly Bean Project...

There are many more of these. Working on focus, mostly.

By the time I finished, I was entertaining a serious sweet tooth. 

Made it out of there having only four (maybe five) of them.

Day Seventy Nine

He Rocks!!

Another lazy Saturday. After many years of no free Saturdays, we treasure these. I think that, soon, we'll move on and decide to fill some of them with activity. But not quite yet.

This time, we rented Lego Rock Band.

One of his favorites is "We Are the Champions".

Go, my little Freddie Mercury!

Day Seventy Eight

Proof of Life

I was beginning to wonder.

We live in the middle of the central Oregon Cascades. And, while this affords beautiful mountain views and the bluest skies, it also can be a brown, frozen wasteland in the late winter months...

I miss blossoms and green lawn and, well, LIFE!

So, imagine my joy as I spotted these beautiful blooms, right outside of Red Robin.

 

Day Seventy Seven

Studying too hard...

The final's tomorrow. Last one. My guy is exhausted.

Can't wait for Spring Break next week!

Day Seventy Six

Some green for the seventeenth...

She saw me, I believe, with my camera out of the corner of her eye.

This is what I interpret as her, "Okay, Mom. DO it if you must," look.

But those green eyes and the golden hair. My stunning girl.

This is, incidentally not only St. Patrick's day, but our TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY!!

Day Seventy Five

Soba...

A little teriyaki chicken and the company of our oldest daughter in a wonderfully quirky setting makes for a beautiful Tuesday lunch.

Day Seventy Four

I admire his tenacity. He works hard at the things he loves.

 

Day Seventy Three

Historic and Peaceful Hendricks Park

I hope to be back here in a few weeks when the rhododendrons are in full bloom.

Oh. And if you're someone who's looking and you happen to notice that this days clothes look an awful lot like yesterday's clothes...

Yeah. I don't know what you're talking about.

Day Seventy Two

The Weekend We Picked Hailey Up For Spring Break...

(aka: the best weekend all year!)

Day Seventy One

This is the look you might get when you bathe your dog for the first time outside since the dead of Winter and the hose spews little icicles out at him.

Day Seventy

Classic Little Brother...

(conversation in the car)

Sister: David Bowie's so weird.

Brother: So are you.

Sister: I meant his movie. It was dumb.

Brother: Well, then. It suits you.

At this point, no one gave it a second thought. This is a familiar kind of conversation in our car.

But then our daughter exclaimed, "Oh my gosh! He's laughing so hard that tears are coming out of his eyes!!"

It's true...

Day Sixty Nine

Quiet Class...

Day Sixty Eight

More snow. A lot more snow!

But we've got the most awesome blue sky!!

Day Sixty Seven

One of my new favorites...

Everyone else has probably known about this for ages, but this is my first Anthropologie catalogue and I have carried it around with me for days!

The photography, alone, is beautiful and thought-provoking (as in, "How would I do that?")

Anyway, in a world where I've seemingly run out of inspiration; on an early, frigid morning...

I offer you a glimpse of the thing I'm going to spend the next half-hour thumbing through (for the tenth time)...

Day Sixty Six

Yep. Still Winter...

This week has been another uninspiring, cold, few days of waiting for Spring to arrive.

More snow.

Day Sixty Five

Looking at this blog, one might begin to wonder if my daughters have fallen off the face of the earth.

Maybe I love the boy better than I love the girls...

No. He's just the ham.

And he's home more than my thirteen-year-old and WAY more than the college girl.

I had determined that his day's shot was actually to go to my middle daughter. I miss seeing her here.

But, as we picked her up in downtown Bend from her sleepover, I realized that her "sleepover makeover" would make it necessary to wait for another day.

They used stuff that STAINED her face! :).

While this may seem like a perfect capture for a project such as this, Mommy (and Daddy) just said NO!

Instead we have the brother, pretending that he's driving us to the beach...

(I'm so thankful that he still has eight years to go before his license!)

Day Sixty Four

 My guy on the school playground with his buddy...

Day Sixty Three

See...

Even the birds are hiding from the snow.

Spring's coming. Spring's coming. Spring's coming. 

Spring's coming!

 

Day Sixty Two

Seuss Hangover...

(dark and blurry? Yeah, Me too.)

Because of my new working schedule, Dad's school schedule, and, well, life, we hesitate to add new stuff. But, like many schools, ours hosted a Dr. Seuss night with a corresponding book fair.

My son wanted very much to go, and Dad played hero while I cooked a late dinner (everyone pitched in) and took B to the event.

So, a short night's sleep (and a full series of Indiana Jones books) later, this is how "we" woke up this morning.
He looks like I feel. Only much cuter and with whiskers!

Day Sixty One

I started my job at Kids' Club , which is a before and after school (also Summer) care program, the Fall of 2006. I have loved almost every minute of it. This past Fall, my boss and good friend broke the news that, due to the economy, we simply didn't have enough kids to support two workers. I was jobless, so to speak, from this past September until...TODAY!

Circumstances created a need for me again. I have missed it so much!

 

Day Sixty

I am loving my daily walks with my friend, Amy.

I take my camera from time to time, trying to find something beautiful, or at least interesting.

 It's a discipline for me as the cold, dry weather drags on.

But I see Spring coming... on the calendar, if nowhere else.

I try to sort of meditate on the quote I see from time to time:

"IAMNOWHERE"

If I am someone who reads, "I am nowhere," which I have tended to be,

I can look long enough to see, "I am now here."

I find it a bit cheesy and "pop-psych", but it struck me just the same.
It helps me adjust my over-wintered, anxious-for-our-"new life stage"  attitude. 

 

 

Day Fifty Nine

I've seen some similar shots in the past few days.

I've wanted to do this one for a few weeks now.

But today I'm so anxious for anything to bloom, that I thought maybe, if I give it a little attention...