I'd Be Your Princess

Just had an "emotional daddy moment" with Savannah...

For as long as I can remember I've called Savannah my little princess - while at Blue Kangaroo I found and read to her the book above - special moment :-) with my little princess.
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Tea Time With Savannah

After our dentist appointments this afternoon, Savannah and I went to The Blue Kangaroo in Danville - a children's bookstore. While there we had a little tea party - she served me strawberry tea & mini pizzas :-)

I love the imaginative mind of a six year old :-)
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Sharp Gas Price Increase in B/N Overnight

Can someone explain to me the justification of B/N gas stations raising their gas prices by 30-cents or more in one day??? Hmmm:
1) State Farm pay day
2) ISU pay day
3) Country pay day

FREAKIN' AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Burying Frenzy

Tumnus has been on a burying frenzy lately with his treats - as you can see from above (please ignore my messiness on my chairside table) he's getting rather creative now.

This all started about a month ago and has become a daily event. At times he just stands and whines with a treat in his mouth because he can't decide where to "bury" (hide) it. It's the cutest thing to watch. But, you do have to be careful where you sit at times.

Slow Days

Yes, I know - I haven't been blogging very much lately. I've been spending too much time on facebook I guess. I've been posting a lot of pictures there (at facebook) from recent happenings, but many that look at my blog don't have a facebook profile. I guess I need to be better at posting pictures to my blog, too - or at least on a site that both can view from.

First Portraits Taken

I've never REALLY had an interest in taking true portraits of people, but over the past couple of months I've become more intrigued by the idea. Problem is, there's SO much to learn, and it's much different than still, nature, landscape, flowers, leaves, etc.

It's the skin... I tend to over saturate, contrast and/or sharpen. Which, from reading, is common from those who art just starting.

Anyway... a customer of mine (actually, more of a friend now than a customer) talked me into taking pictures of her two kids (son is going to be a senior at IWU this fall and daughter is going to be a freshman at Augustana this fall). It took a lot of self-encouragement to do it, but last Wednesday I spent a coupe of hours taking pictures at two locations of them. It was a lot of fun, and luckily my nervousness didn't show too much.

I've gone through all the pictures and thrown out the REALLY bad ones. I'm getting ready to post the remaining ones for my friend to look at, then I'll start touching them up. Here are two that I already did a little work with just to see how they're going to turn out:


Again, I'm just learning on the whole Photoshop thing and these are just "drafts"... "her" picture has WAY too much red in it (tried to make her red hair "pop" more and didn't have time to separate it out as another layer, so it had a strong effect on her skin, too).

SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much to learn. Where do I start? I'm looking forward to seeing how they turn out... After I've pulled all of my hair out getting them there!!!

(My blog posts also get posted to Facebook... I wonder how long it will take them to see their pictures on there :))

Starbucks Closing List

If you're concerned (like I was) on whether a Starbucks near you is closing, go HERE to see the official list of store closings in the U.S. Luckily, NONE in Bloomington/Normal (YEAH!!!), but most other cities in Central Illinois are losing at least one.

Where's Savannah???

Savannah is...

1. Playing peek-a-boo at bedtime
2. Sleeping
3. Hiding from Tumnus
4. Was finally found, after missing for 3-days, under multiple layers of clothes, Webkinz, books, Beanie Babies, Barbie stuff, etc.

Lazy Sunday Mornin'

We're moving a little slow on this Sunday morning... we even decided (OK, Laurie did) that we're going to second service at church today. We hardly ever do that, but Laurie had a lot she wanted to do this morning. And, of course... I didn't argue. I've thoroughly enjoyed taking it slow, walking with my cup of coffee around our house looking at my plants, gardens, tomatoes, bananas, elephant ears, pond/waterfall, spitting pond, palms... HA!!! I make it sound like I have an estate!!

A few thoughts on gardening in 2008:

• Hostas - They look absolutely GORGEOUS this year!! I don't usually let hostas flower for too long (if at all), because they put so much energy to the flowers the leaves start to look drab. But, because of the amount of moisture we've had this year hostas look GREAT. Very few slugs this year, too :)


• Bananas & upright elephants ears - REALLY slow year getting them to grow. You'd think with the amount of moisture we've had they'd be growing by leaps and bounds. But, the cool streaks we had early really set them back. My "mega upright elephant ears" only have two leaves each; this time last year they probably had 5-6. It didn't help that I was spoiled last year by starting my bananas and upright elephant ears in a greenhouse early.


• Daylilies - I have two gigantic designer (light purple) daylilies in my front bed that are FULL of blooms every year (I LOVE THEM). This year is no exception, but they were about a week late blooming. I can depend on them to always start by June 21st. But, this year it was the end of June.


• Pond - It's been a difficult year for ponds (at least the ones I'm aware of). There was a lot of algae growth early (some actually started during the winter during a spike in the temps). I had more than the usual amount of "muck" or "sludge" on the bottom of my pond and I couldn't get rid of it through the usual methods. Sad to say... it's still there because I haven't taken the time to get rid of it. Also, it took forever to get our water clear this year. Just over the last 10-days or so has it cleared. The plants are coming along nicely, and we actually have a water lily that is blooming this year :)


• Tomatoes - We're growing Big Boy, Roma & Cherry tomatoes this year. I'm growing them in large containers rather than in the ground. I'm getting concerned, though, that there isn't enough room for the roots. Hopefully we'll get a decent amount to use. Also, the kids want to sell some to make some extra money (quite the little entrepreneurs).


• Irises - WOW... they were BEAUTIFUL this year. Too bad I don't have any :( (Well, any that bloomed yet... next year, hopefully.) At three of my customer's houses they were UNBELIEVABLE this year. I posted a few pictures when they were blooming back in May. Take a look when you get a chance if you didn't see them. Sad thing is, I'm not a fan of irises, but I couldn't get enough of them this year.


• Japanese Beetles - I thought we were maybe in the clear of them this year at the end of June. But... when we got back from Texas, I think they followed us. Last Thursday I had to spray at a customer's house that gets maliciously attacked by them every year; this year was no different. Thank God for Bayer garden products!! I've only had a few here at our house. I sprayed right before we left for Texas on a few things I was concerned about, but haven't had to spray again since coming home.

Well, I need to head inside to get ready for church... SO much more to blog about, but SO little time to do it.

To finish out, here's a picture of Andrew receiving his orange belt yesterday at Victory Academy. He's doing an AWESOME job at taekwondo... he has such a passion for it and is very committed to his goals. We're very proud of him.

Here is a picture of Andrew with Grand Master Sosa... the owner of Victory Academy and his taekwondo instructor. He was just recently awarded his 7th degree black belt. We feel very honored that Andrew is a part of his taekwondo program at Victory Academy.

Back from Texas

Can a trip to Texas be complete without buying a cowboy/girl hat and cowboy/girl boots? To Andrew and Savannah the answer is "NO."

This picture is DEFINITELY coming out on Savannah's wedding day :) The cowgirl hat and cowgirl boots have barely been off her head/feet since they were purchased last Sunday afternoon in Fort Worth, Texas.

Cowboy/girl boots made putt-putting more interesting... especially when they're being worn with shorts (oh the innocence of children... gotta love it!!) The hats had to stay in the car because of the wind.

And here is my other little cowgirl :) without a cowgirl hat and boots, of course (she wouldn't buy them). Here Laurie is showing me her score for the hole she just completed. However, she would have needed quite a few more hole-in-ones to beat me :)

And... here I am...

Other than Caleb & Kathrine's wedding... my favorite part of the trip was the pool :)

Decisions Decisions...

Way too many choices for gas here in Missouri.