Joy.... in the simple things

Joy.... in the simple things, a photo by sometimes suzie on Flickr.

How was I to know when I named this photo how true the sentence would be.

So after more than a year of not posting photos to Flickr I have made an effort to pick up my camera, take photos and post. I have enjoyed the creativity.

So, going back to when I posted every day, I would look to see if by chance one of my photos happened to just maybe get "Explored".
What dose it mean to be Explored? Well, the people of flicker call whatever it is that picks the top 500 most interesting photos "the donkey". We are never sure other than if a photo gets a bunch of likes and or comments on it might make it on the list but really it is a mystery.
If your photos makes the top 10 photos of the 500 it is referred to as "front page".
I have had 32 photos Explored with my first one coming a very long 6 month after I started posting on a daily basis. The Donky was very elusive to me but of this 32 photos I had one of my macro photos make the front page and I was beyond excited.
Now, back to my recent posts. I have been posting in both the Macro Monday's and We're Here! group using their themes to inspire me. I have loved having the camera in hand again. I have felt a bit rusty that is for sure and was shocked to say the least when someone commented that my "candle" photo had been explored. Huh?
Imagine my surprise when my nest photo for We're Here! was ALSO Explored. Double Huh? And then this photo, my 3rd for the group was also Explored.... and I was SHOCKED.
This photo was taken in a rush and I had to quit taking photos and go pick up the girls so I had to make due with what I found in the camera. I ended up liking this one although the focus isn't as sharp as I would like I loved the floating leaves and in the end the theme was "childhood memories" and that was playing in the leaves.
I decided to check to see if my last photo managed to get explored and to my surprise it had and while checking on it I also found that this photo has made it all the way to the 14th photo with over 22000 views.
Needles to say I am shocked and excited and I know this "explore" run will end it sure has been exciting and made picking up my camera even more fun.

It's been the "Joy in the simple things"

Mommies have play dates too!

It sure is tough getting three reserve flight attendants together in one place at the same time. It takes getting all of us to have a common day off that none of us have plans on.... whew. It took about 6 months for us to actually pull it off and we met at the Cacallic Cafe. The food was fantastic but the "Tomato Juice" we all ordered was even better! Mine came with bacon infused Vodka and a piece of bacon in it too!

Deja and Melissa were roommates in training and Deja was one of my crashpad roommates when I was flying out of Seattle. I had a strange connection with Melissa that started with her sisters, boyfriends, dad was on my flight {did you follow that} and asked if I knew Melissa and although he had not met her in person he thought I looked like her. {how sweet of him} I ended up having about four more interactions with other people that were connected to Melissa including having her sister on my flight who recognized me. It was great to finally meet Melissa in person and to catch up with Deja although I got some worisome news from Deja. She has a growth behind her ear that has effected her hearing. Her surgery is scheduled for next Tuesday. Keeping her in my prayers.

Motivation

Trying with out much luck to drop a few pounds and tighten some flab before our trip to Mexcio for Spring Break. I went to one of my favorite places to buy swimwear called Popina and purchased a little motivation.

Snow Day Fun

The kids all got out of their uniforms and got into their snow clothes to make the most of this unexpected snow day. They attempted to sled down the most awesome sledding hill but the snow is a bit to fluffy and they couldn't get much speed going. We are going to revisit the sledding hill maybe later.

Sarah got to work making her own snowman and spent quite a bit of time out there even after everyone else came in getting it just right.

I lent Ian my boots so I didn't have the right shoes so didn't stay out in the snow except for short moments

I'm not really sure what Ian was building but he was having a good time doing it!

Emily on the other hand was making a dragon

the beginning of the snow man

Olive LOVED playing in the snow. She chased snowballs and ran around in circles and insisted being in the snow as long as the kids were. Emily even spent some time throwing a tennis ball and Olive would leap through the snow to get it. Em even buried it for Olive to play hide and seek. Such a fun day. SO glad I made the decision to NOT go to school today. From what I understand they have no snow in Lake Oswego, only rain.

Em came in and asked for hot chocolate..... her favorite part of playing in the snow. We didn't have any marshmallows BUT we had whipped cream so I think she was quite happy.

Snow day!!!!!

The kids were hoping so much that we would have a snow day today but I got a phone call at six in the morning that said school had a two hour delay but there was still school today. They were super sad and moping around but I still made them get their uniforms aren't eat breakfast and get ready to go. We went to Sparas got our coats on gotten the car backpacks backed out of the garage as I called the school and talk to the school secretary. I told her we had a ton snow at the higher elevation and she said the kids wouldn't miss much today soooooo I made an executive decision and decided the Sedgewick kids were having a snow day today!

To Joey

To Joey,

Thank you for the year you gave our family. You brought us much laughter, love, and sloppy kisses. You were a pillow, a friend and an alarm clock for the kids.

Thank you, we will miss you greatly.

Love,

Your Family

xoxox

It has been an emotional weekend. Our 1-year old black lab, Joey, who has been featured in my photos quite a bit got sick on Thursday. He stared throwing up that morning and I took him to the vet several times over the next few days but truly never expected that we would lose him. I had to be up in Seattle on Monday and didn’t find out until late in the day that he was not going to recover. I drove home that night in a state of shock but now that I am home I keep getting reminded of just how empty the house and our life will be with out him.

I had a love hate relationship with that darn dog. More love really, but I didn’t want to get another dog when we lost our lab Ogee last year. I didn’t want the responsibility but I was overruled and the husband and kids brought him home. Before I knew it Joey got into my heart and now it is breaking. He treated the kids like littermates and I loved to watch him play with them. He will be missed more than I can really put words to. 

Ohhhhhh Yummy!

Starbucks started caring the cute little bite size treats and although they are under 200 calories I have been doing my best not to order any of them. But today I just couldn't resist and I ordered a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter and a half of a Recess cup on top.

 ... and it came in this cute little box. And boy oh boy did it taste good with my coffee

Voodoo Doughnuts

Ian, Sarah and I went to pick up uniform items and sense we were downtown we decided to make a stop at our favorite doughnut shop, Voodoo Doughnuts. 

Ian and Sarah entertained themselves playing the "I am a guppy" game that the cousins showed them on their visit

my favorite doughnut - the Grape Ape

What a day!

On Tuesday {our second snow day} I decided that I needed to get my snow tires on my car because the weather for the rest of the week looked bad. I went out to start my car and my battery was dead. UGH! So my mom went down and got her jumper cables I cleaned out the left bay of the garage and pulled my mom's car in and jumped my car. I then loaded my tires in the car and was on my way, however when I got down to the end of my driveway and took a look at the road {along with the fact that my car was slipping around} I thought I better put my chains on. 

After a phone call to Terry to find out if the chains went on the front or back tires I read the directions and went to work. It was surprisingly easy. I had one tire done and was well on my way on the other when someone driving by stopped to help. I declined, saying I was almost done {I really wanted to say I had done it all by myself!}.

Before I knew it I was on my way to get my tires on. This is the road I had to drive down to get off our hill. 

I made it to the tire store only to find a HUGE line of people waiting to check their cars in. It took about 40 minutes to even get to talk with someone and when I handed my keys over they said it would take about 5 hours. I walked over to our new favorite place to eat Roses Deli and had my new favorite soup - Matzah ball, YUM!

While I was sitting there enjoying my soup {and the peace and quite} Terry called and suggested my Mom come and pick me up. He seamed a little confused to why I might choose to sit and wait for 5 hours to get my car back {to be fair he didn't know I was enjoying soup}. I gave in and let my Mom come get me, I at least had an hour and a half of peace.

Did I tell you

• that I LOVE eggnog lattes - yummmmmm!
• that I don't even like eggnog.
• that I think I make the best eggnog lattes around {including Starbucks}

I'm just saying

I was just reminded that

O' Holy Night by Josh Grobn from his NOEL album makes my eyes well up and gives me goose bumps. Beautiful, just Beautiful!
Take a listen! It is what Christmas is all about!

I need these

Ok, maybe I want them, really really bad. 

They are not available until October and it would be a great Christmas present but I don't want to wait until October little lone December

Anyone want to purchase a EOS Rebel ET camera body?

Speaking of Cool tools

I have a web site that I found  called Big Huge Labs {I had thought Tara have given it to me but apparently not} that gives you some cool tools to work with your photos. My favorite would be the 'mosaic maker' which I have used on some of my recent posts. Check it out it is very fun!

another cool tool

Flicker has another very cool tool called 'one letter' check it out here and here is the link for for Spell with Flicker where you can type in what ever you want and it generates random letters. VERY FUN TOOLS!

I LOVED this movie!

if you haven't seen it yet check it out here

(by the way that is the first time I have done a link! Yeah for me!)