What I love about spring....

 

Tulips!

They have got to be my favorite flowers ever. My mom has a green thumb, I however, do not. I remember when I was a kid sitting with her in the front yard of our house with her as she planted the bulbs for the tulips. She always had dirt under her nails and it drove me nuts! She would always try to get me to plant with her or weed the flowers with her. I just wanted the end result, the pretty flowers.

Of course now, I wish I had her green thumb.

Ooops, I did it again!

Ok, not really!

Back in October, my sons cute little behind fell on my laptop, cracking the screen and causing it to ooze a cloud of black stuff that ended up looking like one of those cards a therapist would ask you to tell them what you see, "Is it a duck?" Nope, wrong! Being the ever prepared Mommy that I try to be, when I bought the laptop a year ago, I also bought the service plan (thank you Best Buy), which thankfully for me covers accidental damage, in this case falling behinds. Last month I finally broke down and took it in to have the butt damage repaired.

It was two of the longest weeks of my life!

After I FINALLY got my laptop back (insert happy dance here), I gleefully opened it to see the beauty of my clear, clean flat screen restored! Yea, no more feeling like I am being psycho analyzed by my laptop, woo hoo, this calls for another happy dance! Upon further use of said beautiful laptop, I realized that there was something WRONG! Are you kidding me? I just got it back after two of the longest weeks of my life and now there is another problem?!?!?

Basically, not everything was put back together correctly. I can see it now, the happy Geek Squad Geeks will get my lovely laptop back and slap themselves on the forehead and say "OOH, THAT'S where the extra screws went!!" Nice, very nice....
One would think that it would only take one trip to the service group to fix whatever issues may arise, but no, after only having my laptop back for a few short weeks, I now have to take it BACK to the Geeks! Arugh!!

Here's what I want to know: when did I, and this world in general, come to rely so much on technology? I mean seriously! I have yet to take my laptop back to the Geeks simply because I don't want to be without my beautiful laptop, AND ITS NOT EVEN RUNNING, the battery is totally dead! It doesn't even have to do with having to go out of my way to find a Best Buy, I pass 3 just on my way to work. No, I just don't want to loose access to Facebook and Blogger and the outside world at large. And again I say, ITS NOT EVEN RUNNING! But maybe, just maybe, if I tilt it this way just right I can get the little pluggy thingy to slide this way and I can plug it in!

Nah, who am I kidding, I need to just take it in and deal with the fact that I am about to enter the SECOND LONGEST two weeks of my life in the hopes that my baby will come back to me in one piece, in all of its glory, from the Geeks. And until then I will have to just suck it up and get on the net when I'm able to. How sad is that?

Surviving

 

Are you a survivor? No, I dont mean survivor as in that reality TV, stab your friends in the back, forget your morals to win a million bucks survivor; Im talkin, life throws you a curve ball and you hit a homerun, survivor.

See, life is all about the journey, right? Well, what do you do when you hit a speedbump? What about a dead end? Do you just sit on the side of the road and cry? Or do you decide that where you are just isnt good enough, figure out how you got there and learn to never do that again? Granted, it may take a few tries, but eventually you get there.

I have to remind myself of this every day. I think thats what makes me a survivor, I make the effort. I may wallow for a bit, but in the end I keep plugging along to get to where I want to be.

So dont give up, keep plugging along and you'll get to the finish line and hopefully learn some things along the way!

Rain, Rain....

 

Its raining, its pouring, the old man is snoring....

Having been raised in the Great Northwet (Oregon for those who dont know), I have a great appreciation for the rain. I love the rain, its refreshing to me. Everything is all clean and shiney. From a photographers point of view, I love the rain drops look on the leaves of plants, the way things are often reflected in the puddles of rainwater, how it sounds when I am going to sleep at night. I just love everything about it. So todays picture is of rain drops on my windsheild from a few months ago. Enjoy!

The colors of fall

 

OK, so I know its well past fall and moving into spring (all be it slowly!), but I was going through my archives and came across this picture of this fall leaf and every time I see it I am struck by the colors and the texture of this leaf, the way the light hits it just so and the curl at the end that's just turning brown. As I look at this picture of this dying leaf, I am reminded of the beauty of life and now more than ever with the events that unfold in the world around us I think its important to focus on just that, the beauty of life. This picture inspires me to capture the beauty all around me and to share it with every one I can reach. I hope this picture inspires others to stop and take a moment to forget about all of the bad things going on in the world, even if just for a moment, and find something beautiful, to take it in and file it away and savor the moment.

Butterfly

 

This is from my archives, however, this is the only shot that Ive taken of a butterfly. I was so happy when I got this I nearly cried tears of joy! I have always seen pictures like this and thought that I might be able to get that one day and on the very first try, BAM! There it is. So now, here you go!

The "LIST"

OK, so after much thought and consideration I have come up with my list. This was not easy because there are so many amazing things that I would love to get pictures of and there are some that I already have pictures of. So here it is:

A cool butterfly pic
(which I have one to post, but would like more)
Sunset at the beach
Sunrise in the mountains
My children's portraits
Historical Landmarks
Fruits and Veggies
Something really abstract
(which is totally out of my norm)
Greece
The Eiffel Tower
The Great Wall of China
A Wedding
Portland, Oregon
(where I grew up)
Exotic Flowers
A foggy day
Lone tree in a field

Like I said there are many more I'd love to take and maybe as I mark some of these off I will add them, but for now this will have to do.