Balloon Walking

This morning we woke up to find hot air balloons flying high near our house. Please take note that I said near as though near could be a mile away. We often see them this time of year out in front of our house. Evan had never experienced a hot air balloon sightting up to this point so Jason woke him up. He woke him up! It turned out to be worth it so I put mad my face away. 

After watching the balloons for some time, we noticed there was one balloon actually flying low over the top of our neighborhood. Then we thought "hey! it's going to land behind our house!" So we ran to the back yard with the camera.

 As you can see, the hot air balloon was getting closer.

That's when we realized the hot air balloon was walking toward us. 

 Evan was enthralled and continually pointed to it saying "bayoon!" Say it that way, it's fun.

 As the balloon people (what are they called? "ballloonists"?) passed by I yelled out "We have to walk our balloon every day too!"

 They continued walking the balloon down the path behind our house while Jason and I speculated as to the reasoning behind it. Do they need the exercise? Are the pointy plants in that field too risky to deflate a balloon of this stature?

 We decided to follow the balloon people and we ran inside, through the house to the front yard.

 There's my neighbor Jane.

 I call this "A balloon Between Houses". It's for sale.

 This is when we discovered they were coming to land the balloon on the road in front of our house. On.the.road.

 I was tempted to run and jump into the basket.

 I asked my neighbor Jane if she wanted to take a selfie with the balloon and she said sure. That's when I discovered that I had just finished doing my Insanity workout when the balloon hoopla began and in my haste to get picture of the balloon, I ran outside for all the public to see me in my workout clothes, stinky and rather pathetic looking. That doesn't stop us girls from getting selfies now does it?

Then Jane suggested we turn around so that we can have our picture actually taken with the balloon. Oh.

 So we turned around and I nearly got the balloon in the picture

 We tried again. A little better.

 Then I realized I could just ask Jason to take it. I also realized all the neighbors in our cul-de-sac were outside watching the action. And I still hadn't showered our changed. 

 If you zoom in on this picture you can view the name of our cul-de-sac. But only if you're a stalker.

 It doesn't take long to deflate a balloon. Especially if you pop it with a pin. Which they didn't do.

 I asked if I could touch the balloon material because I was rather curious about what it's made of. Please avoid looking at my legs.

And that, my friends, is how you take a hot air balloon for a walk.

Out of the Blue

On Wednesday, I took the boys and we had lunch with Jason so that we could watch the Thunderbirds do a show for the Air Force Academy graduation.

Has anyone ever tried to get pictures of jets in motion? I'd like to know.

Dawson brought is binoculars and Evan (when he was sitting for 3.2 seconds) -just ran around and yelled "Ahpane!" I do believe getting a picture of Evan sitting is second only to getting a picture of a jet in motion.

Attempt #1. See the planes? I said it was an attempt.

 Now. If you'll enlarge the picture below and zoom in, you'll actually see a jet. I think.
 
Momentarily, I gave up the notion of capturing a jet in motion for picture purposes. And I decided to switch to video.

If you'll watch the video very closely, you'll see I nearly catch a glimpse.

 Aha! Smoke from a jet!
I could be lying. That could be celebrated cigarette smoke zoomed in and photoshopped to make it look like it's cascading across a mountain behind a jet. But it's not.

14 seconds of awe inspiring sunshine. And a jet or two.

 Here they are! In FORMATION! Sweet glorious formation. In a picture! I took! So apparently I'm for hire. 

 I really did take this picture of the jets and yes it looks like dying ducks. In formation though. So. jets or dying ducks.. as long as they're in formation and you get a picture, you're awesome.
 
  Get a load of me and my bad self! 

 This was my attempt at zooming in. They didn't hit the tree. Bummer. That would have been the twitter talk of the day. If I talked twitter.

  Of course I want a 12 second video of the family before I take a picture of them.

 Like video, like picture.

 Oooh. Nice. Sometimes  Evan says that randomly.

 More picture of the boys enjoying how awesome their mom's picture taking skills are.

 A view of the scenery from my car on the drive home after the show. I was going to jump out of the car and use the timer to get me in the picture, but that's dumb.

And.. I'll leave you with this rather embarrassing video.

In my defense, if I knew I was actually taking video, there's a chance I could have a done a better job.
In case you were wondering, I can teach you how to take blurry pictures like this one while you're unaware that you're taking video. But only if you're a  multi-tasker.

Welcome.

As Mother's Days go, this one was particularly uneventful -just as I preferred. Since I didn't get pictures on my first Mother's Day, and the Mother's Day I had last year still causes me to cry, the little blizzard we had this year on my day didn't send me into despair. Notice I said "my" as though the day to honor mothers the world over was set in place for me. Which it probably was, considering what a great mother I am. Is anyone else disturbed by saying the word "mother"? I always feel like another vulgar word will be used just after it. Apparently I'm bursting with dysfunction.

I did my hair this year on Mother's Day. So I decided to have some pictures to commemorate my long hair. I threw my kids into the photo shoot to reward them for getting me gifts. 

I put the pictures into a collage because I wanted to be awesome like that. You'll notice the only picture with Evan somewhat smiling is because he's saying "cheese". In the bottom right picture I look like I left the room for a minute and got a sunburn while Evan plays with my necklace and the way I have my hand tucked under Dawson's armpit, you'd think I was going to bring my hand up for a little sniff-just like in the movie "Superstar!".

 Once the pictures were through and I realized we were stuck inside all day due to the blizzard conditions outside, I  put my hair in a messy bun and changed into my comfy clothes -don't tell me you all don't have green sweatshirts that you wear with pink cotton pajama bottoms. I was feeling guilty that I had Jason take several pictures of just me with the boys and he wasn't included in any of the pictures. Since I had recently learned how to use the self-timer function on the camera, I set the timer and steadied the camera on the entertainment center. Then I made a run for the couch without enlightening anyone else in the family of my picture heist.

Evan is clearly misrepresenting his personality with the first and last pictures. (You can click on the collage to enlarge it).

If you ask me, sneaking family photos on Mother's Day is right up there with getting a pedicure.

 In honor of being the mom to Dawson and Evan, I'll list a few of their characteristics I treasure.

Dawson:

1. 1. He has the best sense of humor.
2. He frequently reenacts or gives me a play-by-play of the way he fell down the stairs or fell off the couch or tripped over something. Always in slow motion.
3. He loves his little brother.
4. He's a very good artist. Just like his daddy. I guess I should scan some of his artwork to share in a blog. Note to self: "self, share some of Dawson's artwork in a blog".
5. He loves to read.

Evan:

1. He's at the age wear he repeats everything we say. Repeats everything we say. (get it?) Only the way he says things is so cute. "a-tine" means tickle. "a-bose" he says to make me laugh when I'm getting him dressed and I have no idea what it means but I make sure I laugh anyway. When you give him something he asks for, instead of saying "thank you" he says "welcome" really fast. Hence the title of this blog post.
2. His favorite movie is "Finding Nemo" and most days I don't want to find Nemo.
3. He loves bubbles.
4. He's a picky eater. (I don't treasure this one like it's a jewel. More like it's a pet rock).
5. He loves "Awsin" which is how he says Dawson

This year I received Pinwheel cookies (thanks Bobbie Jean -for giving Jason the idea) an itunes gift card,and some Ghiradelli chocolate for gifts.  Next year I'm asking for portable toilet seat covers. I'm a vocal supporter of using them in public restrooms. Today, Evan and I took lunch to Jason at his office. I excused myself to use the restroom and the stall I chose had a holder for toilet seat covers but it was completely empty. I consoled myself with the thought that since I was at Compassion, this restroom entertained Christian butts and therefore I was fine. 

On the drive home I was suddenly stricken with the thought that even though Christian butts use the restroom at Compassion -including the stall I graced with my presence, the toilet seat cover holder was still EMPTY. Which meant those Christian butts had used all the toilet seat covers. Why did they need toilet seat covers? 
Christian germs. That's what.

I'm ending this post with the same collage I used earlier, only this one is more creative because it's slanted!

Happy Mother's Day

The Redesign.

Jason got me a book about blogging for my birthday. Which I'm still celebrating by the way. So you still have time to send me a gift if you haven't already.
The book details layouts and designs for blogs and features interviews with bloggers who make money blogging. I don't know about you, but the words "blog" and "blogging" are starting to sound weird. All of that to say, the book is the inspiration behind the new design of the blog, AND the inspiration behind this post.
One blogger the author interviewed features a blog she created to showcase pictures of herself in a different outfit everyday to demonstrate to reader's how she dresses and what makeup she's wearing based on where she is going. In addition, she takes fancy pictures of a food item she made and gives the recipe. There are a few other things she features on her blog but it appears that her main readers visit her blog to view those two items. 
She gets 8.3 MILLION blog views a month. 
She makes enough money to blog as her full time job.

Therefore, I have seen fit to insert myself into this category of awesomeness.
Take a look-and let the blog views commence!
Here I am on Monday. Staying home. Like I do nearly.every.day.
As you can see, I have adorned myself with the standard "lucky I was to able shower, hair in a pathetic ponytail, no makeup (ever)" look.
I've adorned myself with a bleach stained, hole marked, hand-me-down Transformers T-shirt  complete with the stretchy pants that are falling apart at the seam and partially pedicured with chipped mauve polish, bare feet. 
You too, can have this look.

Tuesday's wardrobe was influenced by my need to go to Walmart.

I dressed up a bit for this endeavor by donning my Estes Park sweatshirt accented with coffee and food stains, and a hood string that's been removed. Bonus-I'm wearing the same pants I wore on Monday. Some pants look good paired with any shirt. Once again, the hair and no makeup accentuate the entire look. The pouty lips were for effect.

Wednesday's look was for a day trip to Goodwill. I must say, this sweatshirt is one of Jason's favorites because it says "Precious 59" which makes absolutely no sense and he feels the word "precious" should be included on all shirts these days. You could probably pick up an 

iron-on at your local hobby store. No need to worry about hair for this trip-put your hood up! 

By Thursday I was too lazy to take anymore pictures of myself and really, Monday is the best look for me.

One last word on changing up your shirt options. I keep this gem to wear to bed. Don't short change yourself by thinking you can only wear silk pajamas.

***

Today's food selection features an elegant spreadable cheese with breadsticks. Make sure your serving tray is clean. And take the picture at an angle to enhance the elegant quality of your work.

You can contact me at any time with questions by:

 1. leaving a comment in the comments section below, or 

2. selecting the "Contact Me" email icon on the right side bar. I'm sure many of you are wondering what photo editing program I used and what name brand clothing I'm wearing. But really, a lot of these looks were accomplished by posing a certain way. I can go into greater detail on that if the questions arise.