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Archive for the ‘You Capture’ Category

I am not a morning person.

For that reason you should not expect a picture of the beautiful sunrise that can be seen from our back deck in the mornings within the context of this post.

Not that I’ve ever witnessed a sunrise from the back deck, because, um, have I mentioned I’m not a morning person?

Rather, I do my best work at midnight and enjoy the peace and quiet that comes with that late hour.

Sadly, the County School Board does not see it my way and they have yet to adopt my plan for the new and improved school day that would begin at 9:00 AM. Instead, they insist that it is in the best interest of the children for the school day to begin at the crack-o-dawn 7:55 AM.

Which means, every morning at precisely 6:42 AM, I am awakened from a deep sleep by my stupid homedics SS5010 Sound Spa alarm clock signalling the start of another day.

I summons myself out of bed immediately, for I know if I do not I run the very probable risk that in between thinking about world peace and the latest episode of Dancing With the Stars, I will fall right back to sleep and will not know another thing until well after 8:00 AM which means that Stevie would be late for school.

Because I also set the alarm on my iPhone for 6:45 AM when McDaddy is out of town, thankfully, that has never happened.

Shortly after rolling out of bed, and just after I pee (I know, TMI!), I grab my morning coffee and wake up the kids.

If I would allow it, my sweet Alex would eat his beloved “brown sugar and cimmanum” pop-tarts every single morning.

As part of our morning routine, but just before heading out the door for school, my two boys somehow end up smearing this mess all over the bathroom.

I have no idea how they do it. I just know that somehow, (in a span of three minutes or less mind you), the McBoys have mastered the art of smearing tootpaste from one end of the bathroom to the other.

Which means I spend part of my morning cleaning cement toothpaste off of the bathroom countertop, the tile, and at least one morning a week from the door. Or the cabinet. Or the mirror.

How do you spend your morning?

You Capture is hosted by Beth over at  I Should Be Folding Laundry.

For this week’s You Capture challenge, we had to go outside and get creative.

So, instead of the ceremonial pictures of my sweet boys, I thought I’d change things up a bit.

This little feller poked his head out of the grass and I snuck up on him from behind. IF he would have decided to jump while I was all “National Geographic Photographer” on him, you probably would have heard me squeal no matter where you’re located.

Because. I. hate. frogs.

Actually, I’m not a fan of anything that makes its home out of doors, but frogs are way up there near the top of my list.

Just under birds.

I snapped about 14 pictures of this booger trying to get all creative with the macro setting, but I never got it to come out just the way I wanted.

Oh Nikon.

You are calling my name.

I’d love to take credit for these beauties, but alas, they are not mine.

Because beautiful flowers require watering, and well, that’s something I neglect to do when I have flowers.

Lazy, much?

While I have no earthly idea what my child is doing, I couldn’t resist this picture of the sun shining betweeen the trees.

And no picture of the great outdoors is complete without a picture of the sky.

You knew that was coming, didn’t you.

If you are by chance the owner of this car, can you call me, please? Mkay. Thanks.

Head over to I Should Be Folding Laundry to see some more of the great outdoors.

NEXT WEEKS CHALLENGE: Mornings

Welcome to my kitchen.

I’m so glad you’ve stopped by.

Help yourself to a no-bake cookie and we’ll get right down to business.

Or for you health freaks, how about a banana,

Let’s get started, shall we? Geez O’Whiz, it just dawned on me that there are lots of baskets in my kitchen.

First of all, there is my recipe book basket. I don’t necessarily use these often, but you must admit they are pretty impressive when housed together in the magazine basket.

Then, there are my canisters,

And their neighbor, the utensil basket (featuring the spankin’ spoon), sits right beside the stove.

My favorite kitchen appliance, the Crock Pot.

And some strawberries waiting to be cut.

Grab another cookie before you scoot along, and remember these important words…

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen on this week’s You Capture tour.

The McFamily is currently in Maysville, Kentucky. McDaddy is here on business and me and the boys are here on monkey business, you know, swimming, playing, shopping, and touring the area.

For that reason, my options for shooting everyday things for this week’s You Capture are limited.

For instance, typically I’d be snapping pictures of the stove, my favorite cookbook (ahem!), the Tivo, and lots of other everyday things. Instead, I’m limited to the things that are with me here in the hotel.

In the words of Simon Cowell, Off we go.

A big part of my everyday life is my laptop, mostly because of this here blog.

Then of course, there’s the one item I never leave home without – my purse,

which carries my precious iPhone.

And speaking of my iPhone, no post of everyday things would be complete without a shot of this,

my new favorite past-time, Words With Friends. (I’m Juliewv if you are looking for a competitor.)

And of course, there is my bling.

which I wear daily, and even when test driving this sucker.

For more everyday things, visit You Capture.

SUMMER IS…..

Sitting beside your brother on a ride at Busch Gardens

Going to a Yankee game with Uncle Dave

Many miles in the minivan as we travel the East Coast.

Music Camp Water Fun

Evening sunrise on the beach

Riding in fast cars

(You knew that was coming, didn’t you?)

This post is linked to You Capture.

We are at the beach with McDaddy’s family and we are having a blast.

We went to Busch Gardens yesterday (Many thanks to the Busch bunch for offering free admission to military service members and their families. AND IN THE INTEREST OF FULL DISCLOSURE, I am not receiving any compensation for mentioning that fact, I’m just very thankful for their commitment to the military and hope to spread the word!) and I am one tired mama. Before dragging myself to bed, I mustered up just enough energy to edit a few shots for this week’s You Capture challenge which just so happens to be PLAY!

And people, I am not playing around when I say I am dead dog tired.

Only I’m not a dog.

Nor am I dead.

But I’m not far from it because we walked for miles and miles in the blazing hot humidity (OH MY WORD IT WAS SO FRIGGIN’ HOT!) and the early morning, midday and evening sun and even a quick rain storm that lasted long enough to soak yours truly.

McDaddy has four siblings and between the five of them, there are fifteen (15!) grandkids. The entire family (plus a few extras) are spending the week together here in sunny Florida.

Of all the topics that could have been assigned this week, PLAY is just perfect for this special time we are spending together, playing, laughing, eating (oh my word are we eating?!), and visiting.

While waiting for our family portrait on the beach my sweet Stevie (shown holding the yellow DS) plays DS with his cousins.

And speaking of cousins… Can you just imagine the amount of chaos play taking place this week?

And speaking of play, the family is having a shuffleboard tournament this week. We are playing shuffleboard round the clock to get the brackets filled in. For those of you keeping score, you can mark it down that McDaddy and I have been eliminated from the tournament. Pictured here are my sisters-in-law, Michelle and Stephanie. (Hi Girls!)

And of course, no beach trip would be complete without lots of playing in the pool! [Note: My sweet boy was not in the pool alone even though it certainly appears that way. I snapped the picture while hanging out of our third story window!]

While playing around with the settings on my camera, I took this shot from our balcony on Sunday.

The thunder and lightning were playing around with the atmospheric pressure just before the actual storm hit.

And speaking of playing.

Here’s Stevie playing baseball on the beach with his Uncle Mike, and cousins, Mallory, Zachary and Noah.

And guess who mentioned the word PLAY at least thirteen times in this post.

Yup, you guessed it. Thursday Thirteen.

There you have it.

Two birds. One stone.

I don’t play around when it comes to efficiency, folks.

[Fess up. How many of y'all scrolled right back up there to the top to double check my math skills?]

Three little words.

Short and sweet.

Me and McDaddy.

Luckiest girl alive.

This post is linked to You Capture.

I talk about vehicles a lot here on the blog.

So, as one might imagine, I was pretty excited about this week’s You Capture challenge – Vehicles.

I know for certain that McDaddy expects at least one picture of the heap, er, I mean Jeep to show up here today.

And y’all know how crazy I am about the nearly extinct Saturn Sky.

Ahem.

Can you believe I drove by a parking lot and snapped this series of pictures trying to be all secret squirrel because I feared if someone saw me they would think I was some sort of private investigator or stalker or whathaveyou.

Not nearly as sexy, but just as cool, is this vehicle carrying two little Amish boys. 

 And definitely not as sleek and sexy as the Saturn sky, but with just as much horsepower as the previous vehicle is McDaddy’s favorite vehicle.

May, I introduce you to The Heap, ahem, I mean Jeep.

McDaddy loves his Jeep and very often goes “wheelin” with the JeepinWV Jeep club. Sometimes I go too, if there are other wives going and I’ve been properly medicated. It’s a good time for the whole family.

Givin’ some knuckles!

For more vehicle shots (which I’m sure McDaddy will take a peek at) head over to I Should Be Folding Laundry.

My family had a wonderful July 4th holiday. We attended the “oldest Independence Day parade in the nation” held in Ripley, West Virginia, and attended a family reunion.

The heat was there along with its BFF, humidity.

Sweet Moses, the humidity?

Was. Miserable.

I tried not to think about the heat because at this same time last year, McDaddy was deployed to Cuba and I was miserable because I was missing him. I tried to focus on the awesomeness of  having him home with us this year and not the stinkin’ humidity, but I’ll tell you it was miserably hot.

On America’s brithday, we saw old cars,

and heaps, er I mean Jeeps, beauty queens, (sorry for the poorly centered picture!)

acrobats,

our friends and their horses,

pulling a wagon carrying my two sweet boys! (Decked out in flashing patriotic sunglasses my dad picked up at an auction!)

Happy Birthday, America!

Visit You Capture for more America pictures!

For this week’s You Capture challenge, we were given three options.

Hands.

Chairs.

Green.

I immediately eliminated chairs, because? Well, because chairs seemed boring to me.

I fully intended to go with hands because my sweet boys have sweet little hands.  But then I found myself up at midnight with some free time and my sweet boys were sound asleep, so green ended up winning the contest.

And, IF I had a decent wireless connection here at the campground where we are staying I would have endless possibilities for the “green” assignment because y’all! I am in the Amish Country where the greenery scenery is spectacular, not to mention the horses, the buggies, and the fields and fields of green.

But alas, the internet is not cooperating.

I mean I have a good enough connection if I hold my head just right, but I don’t have nearly enough patience connection to upload to photobucket, edit, and then download to the blog, so these pictures that I took before we left will have to do.

Oh sweet mercy, that Tommy Bahama knows how to make some awesome lotion.

Part of my Longaberger collection.

Midnight swim, anyone?

Shhh. Don’t tell Lightning McQueen that we made the blog and he didn’t!

That’s all for this week.

You Capture is hosted by I Should Be Folding Laundry.