Bragging on my kid a bit

Adam was nominated by his math teacher to be recognized as an outstanding student.  Each teacher was asked to choose their best boy student and best girl student to be recognized with a breakfast and award with a special statement from the nominating teacher explaining why they were chosen.

That breakfast and award ceremony was Wednesday morning before school.  Adam dressed up because he likes wearing his suit and he felt it was an adequate excuse to wear the suit.

We are so proud of Adam.  He is a smart, confident, compassionate, and strong young man and I cannot believe he only has 3 days of 8th grade left.  And then in September, he'll be in high school (*sniff*), and probably getting his learner's permit (gulp).

I'm not ready...

His teacher had this to say:
"Adam constantly challenges me to find a deeper understanding of why math works the way it does. He is a perfect student for sparking conversation and often approaches problems in a way that I had never thought of.  Adam has become my class helper as he is usually the first to finish his assignment and always willing to take on any task that I need accomplished.  I will miss Adam's challenging insight and helpfulness that inspires me everyday."

I did get video (here) but Good Lord, I'm a horrible videographer...

TOO FAST

The week is going by too fast!

Which is a good thing - because weekend - but also a bad thing - because I have things I want to get done and can't seem to find the time (or energy) to do them in.

So quick catch up on this week's Monday and Tuesday.  I have Wednesday's post all planned out separate-like cause it's kind of special, and then maybe I'll be able to squeeze Thursday and Friday in on Thursday and Friday.

MONDAY


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Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

I have been on a wait list at my local library for about three months for this book.  They finally had a copy open up for me. I am LOVING IT so far. This is the author's second book and I am loving it just as much, if not more, than the first one, Attachments.  I will no longer be waiting for my library to have a copy of her future books for me (her third, Fangirl comes out in a few months) and will buy as soon as possible.  I recommend both books.  (Also, I'll get to meet the author (I think) later this month as she is coming to LeakyCon. YAY!)


TUESDAY

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Ladybug on my lavender plant.

And now my cute dogs with sunflare, because I like the photos and want to share them.




Shower and bed time now 'cause 6 a.m. (I hate 6 a.m.) - TOODLES!

First photo shoots

Saturday was my first "official" photo shoots.

In the morning was a baby and family shoot at a lovely park in Hillsboro, Dawson Creek Park.  I have sneak peeks of that shoot on my photo blog, here.  And then in the evening I did another individual/family shoot BUT I can't share that one yet.  The lovely lady who was star of that shoot hired me because she wanted to surprise her husband with some nice photos of herself and I suggested we add in some with her grandkids as well since Father's day is coming up.  As soon as he's seen his photos, I can share it.  I probably won't remember here (though I'll try) so follow the photo blog or my Facebook page.

Dawson Creek park was so pretty.  It has a pond so it's quite popular with ducks and geese.  We watched a family feed the ducks, which was extremely amusing, and a geese family with several babies, and then a momma duck and her ducklings.

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There is also a tunnel with chalk drawings on it.  There were a few drug and gang related drawings, but the majority were lovely messages and initials in hearts with dates.


Have a Wonderful Day


Unicorns Rule


I Love You Indubitably


Do You Believe In Magic?


I <3 p="" you="">

Be Kind


It's the Most Wonderful Time of Year

Sunday, I spent most of the day editing photos.  I took a few breaks to go to the park and to work in the garden.
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The end of the week

Hey look, it's the end of last week.

So where were we.

Oh yeah, last Wednesday and the final band concert of the year.  The school district, thanks to budget cuts (and it's mostly a real thanks and only a teensy bit of a sarcastic one), has one band director.  He teaches all band students from 5th grade through high school.  The end of the year concert is always a bit emotional.  He gets to show off how well his students have learnt over the year and has to say goodbye to his seniors, and their goodbye to such a great teacher is always emotional.  And awesome.  It's teachers like him that give me hope for our public school system.

149/365 - Carus playing the trumpet.  

And the band teacher can just stand back and watch them play, because he's that good.

Adam getting ready to play trombone.  

150/365 - Thursday, after work, Carus and I made little felt crowns for use in photo shoots with babies and little kids.  Though adults could wear them too, if they wanted. Carus did most of the sewing.  She enjoys sewing, I need to sew with her more often.  I think I'll schedule a sewing day soon.

The finished crowns, they're reversible.

151/365 - Friday, while Carus was at dance I walked the dogs. Then, back at the studio the dogs and I waited on the studio porch and watched a visiting hummingbird.  That bird liked those flowers so much it didn't mind how close I was.  I will be taking my camera to this week's' dance class. Cross your fingers that he returns.

Spring is so pretty in Oregon

Spring in Oregon is so pretty.  Can be a little hard for those of us with allergies though.  When we lived in Aloha our allergies were really bad, but in the three years we've been here they seem better.  We still have them, but we aren't dying from them each year.  Makes me wonder what's different.

Anyhoo.

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Poppies in my neighbors yard.  It was close to sunset, and a dreary, wet day, so they weren't as open as they usually are.  Still lovely color though.


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Usually when we go to the dog park I get pictures of Leia running and playing fetch.  Last night, I thought it would be good to get Yoda.  He doesn't do much playing at the park. It's just full of things for him to pee on  and if I don't move he won't wander far.  The point of the park is to run some energy off of the dogs (cough*cough* Leia) and get them more exercise than they can get in our yard.  To get Yoda to move around, I have to move around - not a bad thing for me.  I walk the perimeter and he follows behind, occasionally getting distracted by a smell and then will run to catch up with me.

Happy Weekend

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Yesterday was mine and Robert's anniversary - 12 years.  Sometimes, feels longer.  Sometimes, not.

Grandma took the kids for the night and Robert and I went to see a movie, Star Trek Into Darkness. It was a good movie, we really enjoyed it.  Adam wants to see the movie too, and Robert is thinking about taking him this week (Carus if she wants too as well, but she isn't sure if she wants to see it). After the movie, we talked about going out to eat but no restaurant sounded good so we decided to just get some steaks and salad fixings from the grocery store and cook for ourselves.  It was a good idea even though I had to do the dishes (saved them for this morning).

It was getting late in the day and I didn't have any pictures yet so thought I would get a better picture of my pole bean support in the garden.


Today, I was super productive. I got the rest of the green beans planted and half of the tomatoes.  I'm starting to think when I get the other tomato plants in (I have 9 beef steak and 9 roma) I won't have room for the cucumbers (I currently have 12 cucumber starts). Maybe a friend will want to take a few off my hands. (Hint hint, anyone local wants some plants?)

Carus helped plant some sunflower seeds in some pots which, when big enough, will be planted all over the yards, and she planted some squash seeds because she wanted to grow one.  She also wants zucchini, but I didn't have any zucchini seeds.

Speaking of Carus, she has decided she wants to be a vegetarian.  Not vegan, she still wants to eat cheese, milk, sour cream, butter, etc, and she wants to eat fish as well, but yeah.  She's been doing okay with it. We had some tofurky sausages in the freezer which I cooked for her to try - she wasn't thrilled with them - but there are other options if she wants to try them.

Besides gardening, I also got lots of laundry done and LOTS of dusting and vacuuming throughout the house, moving furniture and taking apart the couches and everything.  And surprisingly, it's not all dirty again. (yet)

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Just sitting down to dinner, a quick shot with my cell phone.

Steak and tofurkey for Carus (Adam had one too), baked potato, and salad.

Dance dance

144/365 - Toe pointing dancers.



After Carus's dance class this evening, we went location scouting at a local park.  Oh yeah, I didn't tell you a whole story.

So, recently Robert got laid off.  We've been expecting it for awhile (like since October) as the company had very little to no work for quite some time.  We were hoping it would hold out until he had something else lined up but it didn't. Things aren't bad so no worries.

Because every little bit helps, I decided to open up shop on a little photography venture. I'm a week in and already have three sessions booked and two more in the works.  Coordinating schedules for outdoor shoots in spring in Oregon is FUN.

So yeah.  I'm really happy with this location I picked out for this specific shoot.  I'm not planning on doing a backlit and sunflare photo like this - well maybe one, if it works out and looks good.

Anyhoo.  Picture.  That's a clover field.  They are resting crops for every few years on wheat/alfalfa fields around here and there are usually more red flowers mixed with the green but right now, with the colder weather (low 60s when we should be getting high 70s) they aren't.  I don't know if they will or if their window passed.  They're still pretty fields though.

(Don't mind the face she's making. The pose was the best in this one and the eyes were closed in all the other ones anyways. There were other better photos of her as well but I wanted to show the location most so I'm going to be okay with it. It's not the worst face.)

Anyhoo #2
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