FREE THE PIGS!!!

Summer is just around the corner. Be sure to so something bare foot this summer.
I can remember when I was growing up I walked all over the place bare foot.
Even when the roads would be re-rocked and all that poky gravel was twice as sharp
as it was hot. No, I am not tell you to go against common sense (of which I had very little
of in my youth) but take some time to do something fun, outside, barefoot.
FREE THE PIGS!!!
Free them at the market.
Free them at home.
Free them with roast beef.
Free them with none.

Tell me what you love to do barefoot (keep it rated G).

Time Out For Women

Okay so this really nice gal in my ward told me I would love it, and I said to myself,
"motivational speakers...uh, weeeelll, um... that's not really my thing." She had a pretty
persuasive angle, she said " You should go."
Well $49.00 later I had my preregistration
reservation for a lightly padded aluminum-iron seat (part of a matching set of 1700), and
a husband willing to take all three kids for 24 hours straight! (who wouldn't pay fifty bucks for that, huh?)
The day of, I was dreading it. Parking was expensive,I drove alone, I left my husband with a kid at
each ankle looking horribly drained from a rough week...I found a ton of reasons to ditch it. But...
$49.00...you know!?
So I enter this large auditorium with above mentioned seating accommodations,
and was feeling like I wanted to cry...I was lonely. I knew there would be people I knew, but it was so big and there
were so many people and it's not like they saved me a seat, or even like they expected to see me...UHG! I wanted to
go home to my little nest of pillows on my bed and play star wars legos in the safety of my room.
(can somebody say goo-goo gah-gah, Mandie!?) I decided to make the most of it an just see if I knew anyone, and I did, and
to my gleeful surprise, they had saved me a seat. "I AM LOVED!" I was still a little unsure of this
little adventure, but at least I wasn't sitting alone!
Well, I laughed my butt off. I had so much fun. The speakers were just, well...inspirational. and I was
pretty glad I didn't ditch it.
After the friday night conference I hung out with some gals I have known for quite some time. I wish I could explain
just how much it meant to me to spend time with those lovely people. Suffice it to say, it was a party.
Saturdays conference was just as wonderful as Friday (except for the "lightly padded" part). I know this wont convince anyone who isn't already kinda into this sort of thing, but I just wanted to share how unexpectedly blissful the event was.
Check it out at http://www.tofw.com/ to see if they are gonna be in your area some time.
It's worth the money and the time away from babies. I am gonna do it again next year.

It's beginning to look a lot like strawberry season...

Before I begin, let me just say......






Strawberry season comes in a VERY close second for the most WONDERFUL time of the year!

The early bird gets to freeze her tookus

These are some photos of the area around my house at sunrise. The frost hasn't melted yet off the weeds in the field behind my apartment. It was cold.




Miriam and I seemed to be on the same page this weekend.
This was a sunrise at Del Rio Avenue in Firebaugh where I live.

Soon will be a new year.
We have still three fun holidays to make beautiful memories for the year 2010.
It 's a little soon for this I am sure but I will be busy with the new baby come the end of
the year so I thought I would do it now.
This is the year that Miriam started pre-school...something I never thought I would do
but she has loved it and learned things I would not have been able to teach her. And she has made friends
on her own which can be so important for ones self esteem. Tziporah rolled, crawled, walked and ran
this year for the first time. David started staff employment at Firebaugh High. I have taken a
photography class and worked hard on improving myself and staying sane with a young baby and
preparing for another one.
It's been a great year. I have decided on a few things I will work for the next year, and am
excited to meet this new person. It's gonna be so hard! HAHAHA!!!
But I'm learning about doing things that are hard and I guess that's why we come here anyway...
we are here to do hard things because that is how we can let go of pride and become like a child,
and be humble. I have learned that letting go of the ideas and theories the world teaches, and only
loving truth, that I can be happy even when I am doing hard things. I have my whole life
to try and master this, and I hope I can. Part of what I have learned is that I cannot progress
by hanging on to previous ideals that are not true, but are easier to live with or are what
everyone around me has done for many years. Truth must be the priority. I have had a great
year trying to apply what I am learning.

Chaffee Zoo

So we went to the zoo. They are having a photo competition and I thought, hey that sounds like fun.
It's fun being at the zoo, but an average patron cannot really get eye catching or compelling photos.
At any rate Miriam had a good time looking at all the animals. Tzipi just likes being outside so it was
a fun outing. I think she was really worn out because even the next day Tzipi didn't wake from her nap
during the whooping and jumping from family when USA beat Algeria (World Cup stuff).

a rainbow over and over

DO you think it would lose it's excitement and spectacular-ness if you saw a rainbow every day?

Just playing around

I love those pictures that have one thing colored and the rest in black and white. I think they are fun.
It took a while to learn how to do it on photoshop but I feel like I have it as perfected as my amateur
self is going to get . The one thing about doing this is you have a super clear picture. I have tried with not so great
pictures, and they just don't look right. It is way fun seeing the results, though.
I love some of the sunsets we get around here. Pictures never do them any justice, but as you can see
even a blurry and strange angled sunset is quite lovely.

archive

The gentleman pointing at me in the picture is a man named Gene. He has been doing photography for about 3 times as long as I've been alive. One day he came to my photography class, sat down to speak to the class, and then pointed his finger at me. He said "HOLD THAT CAMERA THE RIGHT WAY! Nothing worse than a person that doesn't know how to hod their camera." I took this picture before I asked him to show me the right way so I could forever remember the day Gene told me how to hold my camera.
The Iris picture was at my Momma Floods house.
The Giraffe well....he was really that close.

social and rain

We had a ward social and the person who decorated did a good job. All the tables had different style and colored boots on them with a hanky wrapped around the boots. Then in each pair of boots were country flowers. Very cute.
Then One day it rained and I took this picture of the eves with a lot of run off coming down.