Trip to the mall...

This is how we roll....




I got up, showered & out the door by 9:30am this morning... my goal was to leave at 9am, so I was impressed we left by 9:30am, of course I wasn't so impressed 20 minutes later when I was standing at the door to Old Navy, and realized they didn't open until 10am.

We passed the time spending .75 cents to ride Clifford... these rides used to be a quarter.































It was worth the wait as Old Navy had some Peanuts Valentine love, that I just had to get. Ever since Christmas Madalynn has been asking to watch "Chawley Bwown"... I can't even handle it... they had a whole line of t-shirts that reminded me of the ones we wore 'back in the day...



















Don't forget to stop by the 365 blog... link is to your right near the top of the page... "View From Here"

YIKES... Purge...

I just checked, and I have 56 blogs in my 'favorites' list. FIFTY-SIX!!!! No, I don't check all of them everyday, I know the ones that update regularly, and check those each day, but the others I might pop in once a week. I'm sure 6 of those have been added in the last month (thanks to the Nester tour of homes).

In my effort to simplify & organize my life in general, I am going to cut that list more than in half, so I have 25. I'm going to give myself one week to purge. Additionally, I have them all under my favorites as 'Adoption Blogs', that was true when I started blog hopping, I loved following all the adoption journeys of others. Thankfully, now all those babies are home with their forever families. I've also added many blogs that had nothing to do with adoption, so I'm going to try to re-organize into categories too. I'll let you know.

I'll start by any that haven't posted in over a year, some of those are my favorite blogs, and I've held on to them hoping the blogger would come back, however, I think after a year it's time to move on (or try to find them on facebook).

I'll update in a couple days, and let you know how it goes...How about you? How many blogs do you follow? Do you check them daily, weekly, monthly, use a feed service (which I've never been able to figure out). Do you think it's time to purge? Leave a comment & let me know, or if you just want to say 56... Terri, that's insane... get off the computer!!!, say it... I can take it.

Life...

Madalynn is getting soooo annoyed with me & the camera.  In my attempt to take a picture everyday, I'm also playing a lot with the settings on my camera trying to get the look I want... She is becoming even mooore uncooperative than usual.

In this one, she's taking my picture through that little plastic thing that goes on top of the blender...

Please excuse the food in her mouth...

However, I did get some sweet pics of her at bedtime last night (I know... time to get rid of the plug... we're working on it).  She gets her plug, and then takes Pooh's arm, and rubs it on her cheek, under her nose, or just rubs the end of his paw between her fingers.  There is just fabric on that spot now where there used to be fur... I LOVE it, reminds me so much of the "Velveteen Rabbit"...

This picture is from getting the nursery ready before she came home... that's Pooh in the back corner... waiting for her to come. 

I know a day will come when Pooh & the plug will be forgotten.

Help Me Pick

Pop over to my other blog and help me decide what picture to enter in a baby photo contest....

New Blog

Taking a page from my friend Amy (thanks friend)... I'm participating in a 365 day photo challenge (details here) basically, it's to spend a year taking a picture a day. It's designed to document the everyday things, and to help you improve your photography skills (something I've wanted to do for a long time).

Additionally, I've wanted to start a photo blog for a long time, so this serves 2 purposes. For the next year it will primarily be used for the 365 shots, but a few other photo items mixed in for fun. Please stop by & check it out... let me know your thoughts, and if you're a photo enthusiast I welcome your comments, and feedback. I'm always looking for ways to improve my skills...

Check it out... The View From Here.

New Year

We had no plans for New Year's Eve which was actually fine with me.  I dream of one day having a husband, and several kids that we can hunker down on New Year's Eve, make popcorn, watch movies, play games, and ring in the New Year.  However, for right now a quiet night was fine.  My Mom called me though to see if Madalynn & I wanted to come over, and spend the night with them & the cousins.  I debated for a long time as it was so last minute, and I'd have to pack up all our stuff, not to mention not getting a good nights sleep.  In the end I decided that Madalynn, and my nieces & nephew didn't have that many New Years that they'd want to ring in with their family.  I'm so glad we did it.  No, I didn't get a good nights sleep, but we had such fun.  Particularly New Year morning around the breakfast table, and then sledding outside.  Just laughing, and having a great time being together.  Grandpa even got in on the sledding fun.

I've never been one to make resolutions, I always tended to get more reflective around my birthday vs New Year.  This year is different.  Perhaps it's the change to a new decade or my post- Christmas funk (I'm so sad it's over this year).  Whatever the reason I'm going to focus on some goals (not resolutions).

My 2 big ones are to get more organized... life, home, finances, etc, and to purge things I don't need!!!  Secondly is to be a more patient, and kind Mom (I will not pray for patience though...I've explained my reasons for not praying for patience previously... basically it's because God teaches you patience He doesn't give it you).  I will pray for wisdom in raising my high spirit, highly CURIOUS, high climbing, countertop reaching, cabinet scaling daughter.  I need wisdom to keep her high spirit in healthy boundaries without crushing it.  Her spirit is a gift, and at the core of who she is, and I adore it about her, and know it will be her greatest strength as she grows. 

 

Happy 2010 everyone!!!  Be blessed.

 

I've mentioned before how much I LOOOVE Picasa3 from Google... it's FREE photo editing software... did I mention it's FREE? Anyway, it's a good basic photo editing program, and has a small learning curve. Anyway, they have this collage feature which I played with today, again taking some of my favorite pictures from 2009... This was the result... the only thing I didn't like was I couldn't edit how they cropped the photo.