A friend is one who knows who you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still gently allows you to grow.
~ William Shakespeare


( Welcome to my journal. )

Country Drives: an entry with pictures taken today.

Lions, Tigers & Bears: an entry with pictures taken Friday.

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend and a magical 4th.

<3


Edit:

okay, so I'm sneaking back here to add in a few more thoughts even though some of you have already seen this entry and hopped to the photo blog for a peek (thank you heevoling and dominikangel!) because I cannot sleep (will not? hmm. not sure!) and have things flitting about my brain.

My (ex)sil and I had a talk about dreams and where we figured we'd be in our lives by now, tonight. It was amusing to find that most of our "future plans" (made back when we were in our early 20s were almost exactly alike! One has to wonder, as alike as we are on some fronts (and as opposite as we are on others), would we have met, had I not met/married her brother? We're closer now than we ever were when ex and I were a couple. It's funny how life always goes where it wants. I saw a bumper sticker once that said "This is not the life I ordered" and I wanted it then; I want it even more now.

And I don't have a bad life. I'm not complaining about the life I lead. There are things about -me- that I would like to change (and that I am working on, natch) but my life is very blessed. I do wish I had more time in my day; more years available - but then I think 'you dope. if you used your time wisely you'd not need more time. duh' and .... yeah, I can't argue with myself on that one. I need to get more organized and keep pushing for the things I want. Tony is a Godsend and motivates me and encourages me. I'm happier than ever (and I think it shows).

Daughter was a butt tonight. Typical teenage PMS angst, I think. If I have to hear about how "bogus" her life is one more time I may turn into exorcist girl complete with the spewing green vomit. I swear.

I spent time cross stitching this weekend. Okay, yesterday, but it counts as "this weekend" so there! It felt nice. I have three little projects in the works that will become items for an online shop of mine. Had the shop for a while; never did anything with it. Story of my life.

Took some amazingly incredible photos this weekend. I am taking some of the best photos ever, I think. My skill is increasing every time I pick up the camera. I have no complaints, there. I'm also getting better about putting my name out there through twitter, facebook, wordpress, here and a few other internet homes. Slowly, the photo thing is getting manageable. Slowly.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=7643442&l=f6678e0517&id=886585607

I love this one from today, especially. I have it on facebook but I can't put it on flickr because my mom watches my flickr and I'm printing it for her as a surprise. I hope the link works because I usually just link from flickr and .. well. Eventually I'll post it up "normal".

Now, however, I must get some sleep. Or at least fake attempting to. Work comes early. Monday comes earlier!

<3

We have flowers in the house often now, from nasturtiums to peonies (almost done for the season!) to roses to wildflowers..... These are from the garden.

The weekend has begun; it started at 11:30a when I got out of work. The weather looks spectacular through Monday (according to the local weather man!). Son loves his swimming lessons and is doing great. Daughter is two days away from completing her summer course (and finishing an entire year's worth of classwork in 16 days!) and passing with flying colors. Tony is amazing in every way (and then some) possible and never fails to amaze me. In fact, at times I feel rather guilty that I have this amazing wonderful caring man and he got .... me. Hmm.

But this is a happy entry! LOL

My fat cat is sitting right behind my laptop purring away. Silly cat. I ordered (and got in the mail today) a stamp for the back of my note cards. So this weekend (ie, tonight/tomorrow) I will be stamping them and re-packaging them. I need to do some Etsy work.

Last night we went and saw the new Transformers in the theater. Son and daughter were enthralled. Tony & I were amused by the humor. A good movie, overall. Not as good as the first one, imo, but worth the trip & $$ all the same.

My stock library continues to grow.

We are thinking about fishing at the lake today. Maybe I can get everyone into canoes? Bwahahaha.



Life is good.

Concentric - post with pictures and a mini-rant about professionalism.

Thank you to the ones who regularly read my photo blog. I do appreciate it. :-)

I will do a real update here later.

Off to take pictures.

Over the shoulder - blog post over there!

I need to do a tag search here and dig up some things and ... yeah, well.

I'll add it to my list! LOL

Happy Wednesday. We're almost done. woohoo.

http://natalieclicks.wordpress.com/2009/06/14/chickens-gardening-other-life-pursuits/

Productive day today, in the way of picture taking. I have a lot of tagging and sorting to accomplish in the next few days before I do a mailing or two. Or twenty. Hah.

Drove the car around and loved every moment of it. It's a beauty and handles incredibly well. No complaints here, at all.

Tonight, I picked salad greens from OUR garden to use in our salads. There's something amazing about knowing you grew the food you're eating. We put in a few more trellis and I got some cucumber seeds in. All in all, a good productive day.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Oh, two photos from today on the link. :*)

This makes me giggle.

Look! There's pictures & a "how we met" story here. There's also more pictures on my flickr stream.

In other news, I hope everyone has had a beautiful extended weekend and was able to enjoy family and friends - or do something nice for yourself.

We had a great day. Did some gardening, took a family walk with the dog. I worked on photos tonight (which is what inspired the above linked-to post, tbh) and got a bit more organized.

The market starts soon. Where has time gone?

<3

What's with being added by a boatload of Russian (?) journals that I cannot understand??

Cheater update here, on my photo blog and since it's a photo blog - there's pretty pictures there.

Go look, and if you want, feel free to comment there as well.

Blogged about a bit, here.

I'm thinking of holding a give away for a print or two on the other blog (the one I linked to, above) - but I'm not sure how much readership I have on that blog.

Hmmmm.....

Life is good.

I cheated and updated on my photography blog tonight. I update there every weekend (hopefully). So far so good.

I get home.

I come in and my son is walking up the stairs, talking to me before I even get the door shut behind me. Talking fast and talking a zillion words a second in a very animated voice while waving his arms around, demonstrating .... something ....

"Tony and I were going to get a bucket and worms but we need a knife and wanted to see which one would be okay" and keeps talking and walks to the knife block where he randomly starts pulling out the knives and chasing them with "Is this one okay? This one is pretty good. I think this one will work?"

Mom: Um... a knife? What?

He puts the knife back without a word, and then goes out the garage and comes back in with his fishing pole. "See? We just need worms and a bucket and a knife to cut up all the fish!"


LOL

He and Tony left for Wal-Mart, shortly after, to find a bucket, worms and a sharp knife to "cut up all the fish".

"It's not terribly stressful. It's life. There are things you can control, and things you can't and the hardest part is figuring out which is which."

~ Curt Sleeper, discussing potentially losing his family's home

I hope one of my techie-type friends has a clue, cause I sure don't.

My desktop croaked some time ago, as you know. The mother board died. A friend pulled the hard drive for me, which has been put into a RocketFish drive enclosure. It syncs with my laptop fine, and I can access it. The problem is this:


I cannot find ANY of my document files (things I've written) or ANY of my photography files (pictures I've taken). Some were saved in folders on the desktop; some were saved in folders in the "My Pictures" section. I cannot even find the damn things doing a .jpg search on the F: drive (the external RocketFish drive).


Where the hell do I look for my files??


Help?

Only hours left. They have to mature or they don't make it. Your clicks are appreciated.

And, a photo:

http://times-suspended.livejournal.com/161704.html

You know, I cannot get rid of anything. Not old books, not empty plastic dishes from the deli, not old relationships dead and buried.

Isn't it funny how we think we're past, we think we're okay with it now - so many years later - but that one splinter, that one poke to the memory, and it's almost like we're right there.

Songs do that to me too. I listened to Howie Day's disc "Stop All The World Now" at work and it took me back to the summer I bought the disk. Eerie but somehow comforting.

Unrelated and yet, related, this:



The Wagon Wheel Resort was a favorite place, ages and ages ago. I always felt that if magic was to happen anywhere, it would surely happen here. So much character and history could be found in the lodge. Having to watch it burn over and over was like having a piece of my childhood removed, each time. Now, there's just land and a partial retaining wall. I can still remember where it used to stand, though, and follow the drive with my eyes through the old oaks. The lodge and all of the buildings are gone. What didn't burn was bulldozed.

I wish I had been into photography enough back then to take pictures of it. That's one of my biggest regrets, from a photography stand point.

Oh, and guess what time it is?
Clicky time!! If you would. :-)

Look! I have three I have FOUR hatchlings! Thank you SO much for all your clicking...

annnd...

Could you click them all still? Especially the red one. It only has a day to hatch or it croaks. The hatchlings still need clicks to mature. :-)

Thank you so much, guys.