Life on the Road

The meme for today is a photo that reminds me of a funny moment or makes me laugh.

Although this is a while back, it’s classic Nick (he’s the one pulling):

This is at LegoLand, and I just get such a kick out of how seriously he (and less so my friend’s boys) are taking their acting at this photo opportunity spot.

Sometimes I wish he was still that uninhibited …  Sometimes I’m sorry he is!  LOL

This was sent to me as an email attachment, and I was delighted to be able to find it on YouTube and share it with you.

The original email said:

Pump up the volume!!!

The song you are about to listen to is from a Las Vegas Diamond Rio concert. They received an immediate resounding standing ovation, and continue to do so every time they perform it! Everyone who loves America should be thrilled to hear this song!

Although Diamond Rio has never before done a statement song, they felt compelled to record ‘In God We Still Trust.’ But guess what?

Sadly, major radio stations wouldn’t play it because it was considered ‘politically incorrect’. Consequently, the song was never released to the public.

So America , see what you think. If this offering speaks to your heart and you feel to share it with friends and loved ones, please do..

I can’t seem to get the video to show up in the post.  Grrr…  So here’s the links.  There are actually two different slide shows that I’ve found, set to the same song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiYgpPB1kwU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVcoQcdjrsA

This was a fun Photo Game challenge:  Stand in one spot, and see how many interesting pictures you can take from there.

I chose Jewel’s room.  Sadly, Jewel and the kittens were all absent at the time, which would have made the assignment much easier!

Here’s my favorite, the reflected oval from her armoire mirror:

The other ones I thought were neat primarily involved color and texture:

(Wow, the floor could use a refinishing, eh?)

Her rag rug is a lot of fun in real life, AND in pictures!

Lego color riot!

He’s moved to South Florida.

I have now survived the worst of it … or so they tell me.

Remember the old Dunkin’ Donuts commercial?  You know the one, a guy walking out the door saying, “it’s time to make the donuts”.  By the end of the commercial he meets himself comming in the door while he is going out.

The Thanksgiving holiday week is supposed to be the busiest week for Knaus Berry Farm.  For the past two weeks I have been rising at 4:00 am to start making dough at 5:00.  This makes for a really long day when I drag myself home for dinner at 5:30 pm.  Yep, twelve hour days have been the norm for the past two weeks.

Cinnamon roll after cinnamon roll has gone out the door.  We have been averaging about 10,000 per day.  And that doesn’t include all the dinner rolls and loaves of bread and cookies and brownies and pies.

It wasn’t all work though. I do get Sundays off, and Thanksgiving day of course.  And now - supposedly - we are going to move on to a slightly slower pace.  Everyone says the weekdays are slower, but Saturday is hectic.  The running joke was that Thanksgiving is a week of Saturdays.

So, what else is happening? After the first couple days at the bakery I decided I didn’t want to wear those funny little paper hats — so I buzzed my hair off.  I’m actually starting to get used to it now.  No more worrying about how to style it … BUZZZ … there you go.

And my new wardrobe… Have you ever heard that Einstein wore the same thing every day so he didn’t have to waste time figuring out what to wear?  I now have something in common with one of my heroes. I wear scrubs into work every day.

See how the background is pitch black?  That’s because it’s 4:45 am - the rooster next door has just started crowing, but most sane people consider this the middle of the night. 

I’m here by God’s grace … this proves He has a sense of humor.

This is the fourth in a series of “Photo Project” themes being posted as part of a contest over at Two Moms in a Blog (go check it out!). 

The assignmet for today was to dislay any photo project, past or present.

The first thing I thought of was the collage of auto advertising for our business that I made from cars in the parking lot at our national convention in Dallas back in July:

This was something we used in our sales team newsletter, to help show the options in advertising - as well as the dedication of those who are successful in the business.

This is the third in a series of “Photo Challenge” themes being posted as part of a contest over at Two Moms in a Blog (go check it out!).

Today’s theme is:

Saddest Moments

Wow, not your usual topic, eh?  The point, they say, is to remember that these moments were sad but that we did get through them.

The saddest time in my life so far was losing my father in January 2003.  (Yep, for those of you with a scorecard that’s just a year before the happiest moment.  Busy decade…)

I know lots of people never know their father, or lose him very young, so we were blessed to have had him at all.  But among our peer group (I was in my early 30’s, my sister still in her 20’s), most people still had (and in fact have) active and involved parents.  One of the comments I heard most from the caregivers when I was helping him through the last couple of years was, “But he’s so young!” (it started at age 59).

So anyhow, this photo is my sister delivering the eulogy at his memorial service.  It’s not the best photo, per se, but of all the photos of the service, this is the only one that really caught an emotion. 

To remember the happy times…  This is my sister again, with my son Nick and my dad, just two years earlier.  We had this enlarged and framed for the service.

I love you and miss you, Daddy.  But I know you are happier now, and at peace in the arms of Jesus…

This is the second in a series of “Photo Game” themes being posted as part of a contest over at Two Moms in a Blog (go check it out!).

This one is called “See My Name in Lights,” and the challenge was to spell your name out of something around the house. 

Here’s Champion-Photo-Gamer Nick’s creation:

That’s a carrot “N,” cobs of corn and an apple for an “i,” most of one of our famous Buttermilk Pies as “c,” miniature marshmallows in a “k” . . . and Nick! 

This is the third in a series of “Photo Project” themes being posted as part of a contest over at Two Moms in a Blog (go check it out!).  All of them are based on projects from the Kodak Ideas Gallery.

I know as mom I quickly got overwhelmed with the “art” and “projects” Nick created - in and out of school.  You hate to lose the precious memory, but you just CANNOT keep everything!  As it happens, I stumbled upon the same idea that is being suggested today: 

Photograph them! 

Then you can keep a couple of selective things (hopefully flat ones! LOL), and the rest can live on digitally.

For instance, here is Nick’s Gingerbread House Masterpiece from a couple of years ago, when our local Safeway held a workshop:

And here is a beans-on-a-map chart of volcanic activity on the world.  How would you save it even if you wanted to?!

These two are some of our earliest and favorites.  Unfortunately the colors don’t seem to be cooperating for screen viewing, as they were actually integrated into a complete project and formatted for that.

This is a model of a sample ocean floor, with all the major features sculpted in a special clay Nick made, then filled with colored water.

And this last one is a sculpture replica of an Anasazi Cliff Dwelling.  This was really fun, and Wolf actually made one, too. 

 Okay, I confess, I still have these last models stored.  As great an idea as this photo project album is, some things are worth keeping in 3-D. 

This is the second in a series of “Photo Project” themes being posted as part of a contest over at Two Moms in a Blog (go check it out!).  All of them are based on projects from the Kodak Ideas Gallery.

Today’s project is a Photo Memory Card Game.

This project “is a fairly simple one,” she says!  HA!

I had pretty much decided I was not up to doing this… Printing so many pictures, not to mention backgrounds (is my color printer even working?), then precise measuring, cutting, gluing, laminating…  Bleah!  I don’t think I have the time, the energy, or the “craftiness” that project requires as written.

Then Nick decided to take a break from chores and sort out his Yu-Gi-Oh deck for the ten millionth time.  Ah, ha!

His “good deck” is all protected in a set of little sleeves.  The uniform backs keep the play fair, and you just slide the card in…

Or the wallet-size photo, as it turns out…  Hooray!  An almost-instant Memory Game for Jewel to play!  We used only 12 cards (2 each of 6 photos), since she’s only 2 1/2 and this is a new thing.  (Another bonus - it will be a snap to add more, change them out, etc.).

This is the second in a series of “Photo Challenge” themes being posted as part of a contest over at Two Moms in a Blog (go check it out!).  This one is being guest hosted over at Just Not Martha.

Today’s theme is:

Happiest Moments

There are only two other events that could even possibly compare to this one… and since I do have two kids, I’m certainly not going to choose between them! 

This is me, freshly married to the man of my dreams, the love of my life, my hero…

The actual “First Kiss,” moments earler, was not nearly as perfect a “Kodak Moment”.

The Western attire was fun, since as mature people we didn’t want to go for the traditional “wedding” thing.  We were moving to Williams, AZ, which does an Old West tourist town theme, so we thought it was appropriate.  You can see the accessories better here, as we exchange rings:

It was February 29, 2004.  So we’re just coming up on our First Anniversay!