~ two vids and a pic ~

Today B. and I went on a short walk. Although we live in town, there is a family farm across the street that must be grandfathered in because they have a couple horses. We don't often see them out and about, but today was an exception.




Like I mentioned in my previous post, lately the things she says just cracks me up! This video is of her eating yogurt and blackberries....



When she says "huge" then asks "Where did enormous go?" she is talking about the sunflower that used to be on the deck. It was cut down recently because it had seen better days!

~ happy birthday (a week late) ~

Last Saturday our baby turned two! And boy is she two! It has been so much fun watching her grow and change over the last two years. I can't believe the leaps and bounds in language development over the last few months. The latest funny is that she is adding "honey" to everything. We first noticed it Thursday night when she was telling us she was thirsty, "More milk, Honey."!

Kids started back to school on the 18th, and we also didn't have our regular daycare provider on that day and several days following because she was out of town. We knew in advance, but the lack of a regular routine and schedule does tend to throw everything off. My mom was able to babysit her 3 of the 4 days (thanks Mom!), and Charlie stayed home the first day. Friday, the 19th my mom (thanks, again) took her to the doctor -- pink eye. But she seemed fine on her birthday. Here are a few picks from the day, more on flickr.

The loot:
I made a presonalized Elmo birthday banner with my Cricut!
B.'s first look at the presents!
Shock and awe over the whole thing.
We probably could've just purchased balloons for the kids. We had a hard time getting her to open her presents!

The Elmo cake!


Never leave home without it...

Eating like all princesses, right?
And then she licked rocks for dessert!
Sunday we recovered. Monday night she threw up all night (I'm sure it wasn't related to the rock eating). Then Charlie and I got it. We are still recovering!!

~ butter and butter ~

B. loves butter! When at Grandma B's house, she sometimes get to eat it right out of the tub! Not at home though. However she has started something new...it goes something like this:

B: Butter and butter. I want butter and butter
(butter and butter = bread and butter)
Me: You want bread and butter? OK!
B: My help! My help! B. help!
Me: You want to help?

I give her the knife with butter on it and a piece of bread. She sorta pretends to spread it. Then she licks the butter off the knife!

On this day, I was able to get the butter on the bread. But then, as usual, instead of biting the bread, she licked the butter off.


Notice the hole in the bread? That's from biting it while licking the butter off...not from the side, from the middle!

School is about to begin for real (I've been back for more than a week now). Monday all the teachers join us, then students on Thursday. Hopefully by next weekend I'll be able to take more planned, purposeful, and fun photos. Until then, I'm going through the motions.

~ my black eyed-b ~

Wow! What a couple of weeks! School's getting ready to start, which means my life is extra busy 1. trying to get ready for school and 2. trying to fit some fun stuff in before it starts!!!


Quick recap:

• Monday (Aug. 1st) drove B. and my mom to Des Moines to visit my nephew and his two kids E and L.
• Tuesday back in Des Moines for a conference.
• Wednesday @work with other coaches planning facilitation for New Teacher Induction next week.
• Thursday @ work doing lots of stuff including meeting with the teacher that I am mentoring.
• Friday @ work coaching/developing consensus maps with teachers k-12.
• Monday (Aug. 8) New teachers first day of school -- called induction week. My role on this day was mostly a mentor.
• Tuesday -- continuation of New Teacher Induction -- today was literacy day, so heavy facilitation by me, and then more time with my mentee.
  

No daycare this week because the daycare provider's father died suddenly. I feel so sad for her and hope she is doing well. I can't imagine losing a parent so young. This resulted in a week that was full of scrambling to get B. hooked up with Grandma H. or Grandma B. She loved it though.


B. was extra tired from getting up so early for the Des Moines trip, and having her schedule all whack-a-do!

My favorite non-kid photo of the week was probably this one, taken the last weekend in July at the in-laws. Larry had just watered his garden, the sun was headed downward, and there were drops of water on the dill...


Did I mention that B. also had a way-too-close-encounter with the swing? Bob Dylan (well, Jimmie Rodgers) has his blue-eyed Jane, I have a black-eyed B.

My Zoot Daze continues to be a wonderful partner, I am very lucky to have him in my life. A simple, recent, example was on Aug. 2nd. He could be annoyed with my 365 project. It takes time and I get obsessed, etc. However, knowing I was tired from the travel and extra stress in our lives, he went out of his way to call me outside and say -- "I think I have your picture for today". And he did, indeed.
This subject also allowed me to practice my recent photography obsession -- "freelensing". For my use, it involves detaching the lens from the camera to be able to take a poor man's "macro" shot, but it can also be used to create a tilt-shift effect (which I haven't become obsessed with, yet). More information on freelensing, here.

I WON!!! Cristy over at the blog TheArthurz was giving away the new sketchbook, Sketches for Scrapbooking Volume 8, and I won it! It arrived in the mail on Friday. I've taken a look, but there's no time for creativity this week -- or maybe for a bit -- I need to pour all that energy into work right now. Another week and I'll get a bit of a breather!

Until then, I'll keep my orange colored glasses on...

~ pools and photos ~

I pretty much completely ripped off this layout from Laura Vegas!

I managed to find two journal spots, and get thirteen photos on this two page layout. This is a good thing because these photos tell several stories (pool, storm, blue nails).


Journaling reads:
July in Iowa requires a pool! We bought a $25, 10x6 pool for us all to cool off in (and a neighbor kid or two). Two days later, it blew away in an unpredicted, early morning storm. We never found it! It only took a few days of 110 + heat index before we replaced it!

For this journaling I really should put some brads to dot the bullet points or something. I should also add some embellishments to jazz it up a bit. I might at some point. The reality is, I'm back at work and I wanted to get the page finished (I started it on Monday)! The second page journaling reads:
You learned:
to splash and be splashed
to blow bubbles
to front crawl (never mind it was standing)
to kick, kick, kick
that Daddy will do just about anything
~for you~
even paint his toenails blue!

This shows a close up of the toenails. More fun pool photos are here.

Yesterday I attended the first of eight days of 21st Century Learning, a class offered by Grant Wood, but housed on our campus. It was interesting and a little fun. One thing that we did was a photography scavenger hunt! We were given guidelines and asked to roam around for a bit to take pictures based on the guidelines. This worked out well for me because I could use the photos for my 365 project! My two favorites...

Assimilate This! (photo of at least three of something with a focus on the first item)

But I think I'll use Cat's Eye View for my photo of the day (if I ever get a chance to upload).

This was the bottom shelf -- what the cat would see.

Today I got a package in the mail! I ordered photos from Snapfish for the first time. I often use Snapfish because they are connected to flickr, but I pick up photos from Walgreens. This time, I took advantage of their 200 photos for $2 special (if you have them sent to you via mail). Two things: The shipping and handling is outrageous! However, it was still cheaper than if I'd picked them up -- but it wasn't only $2! Also, I'm not impressed with the quality. The color seems a bit off and the paper they use is flimsy. I think I'll stick with Walgreens from now on. This is what 200 photos (actually 202) look like:


PS Only a little over a week and a half before the recall elections in Wisconsin!