Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Happy Shopper

I like plastic plates.  Melamine I think is the term.
I bought a whole lot of pastel vintage dishes many years ago.
The little bowls have rounded handles and I think they are charming.

This morning as I circled Target with my red cart and Chai
I spotted some very cute dishes at the corner.  The same corner that I found my Orla Keily
dishes and cups a few years ago.

This morning I found these!!!

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paper straws!!!  I have only seen paper straws on Pinterest...never in real life.

I am so cool.

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So cute and colorful and very photogenic.


Now.  I have a hard time parting with money.  Most times I leave shopping trips with nothing.
It's true.

But this morning I was the happy shopper.

 Melamine. Kitchy. Inexpensive.
Mine.

The happy shopper,
Donna







Monday, September 10, 2012

I have to share.
This morning I drove Katie to school.
On the way home I stopped at Starbucks/Target to get a
Chai.
Their cash register was broken.
I got a free drink.

THAT'S MORE LIKE IT!  :o)


Ginny has  a very cute face.  When she is not being naughty.
I don't mind that she stares at us when we eat.
She does not grab.
But she does drool.
Who can blame her.

Here are some pictures of our cute girl desperately trying to get Katie to share.


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Katie gave it to me.
Ginny's eyebrows could win an Academy Award.

Oh poor Ginny.

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cute paws

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This way of sitting cracks me up.

Ginny Harper Potter Daisy Glyman Boucher,
you are a cute doggie.

Love,
Mommy








Saturday, September 08, 2012

Flash Back Friday on Saturday

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Oh my gosh.

Sept. 2007.

Sometimes it's really really good to stand back and get the whole shot.

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Here we were in 1983.

People always ask were the kids got the red hair from...well....


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Then this gem.

I told you I was un-photogenic.

In this picture you see all of my sibs, our mom, grandma Hansen and grandma mickelson.

I'd say I was Katie's age.  I went thru enough awkwardness for the two of us.


Hope you have a really nice weekend!
It's cool here and we are loving it.
Katie and I took Ginny to the dog park already this morning.

We have a Packer game to look forward to tomorrow afternoon!
So excited for football season!

Go! Pack! Go!


Encourage one another,
Donna

Friday, September 07, 2012

Donna and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

Yesterday was a quiet day.
Until it wasn't.
Melinda texted me early on for prayers.
So she was on my mind all day.

Sunny!!!
(pre-catastrophy)



Katie went to school as usual and would have a long day due to volleyball practice at 3:30.

Then at 3:20 Katie called me.
Mom, I can't practice volleyball because I don't have my form with the Dr. signature.

Oh shoot.  I forgot to bring that along with me on Tuesday when she had her sports physical.

I told her to go sit with the team and I would drive over to the Dr. (1/2 hour away), ask him to sign it, bring it back to the office, and then she could practice.

So, in rush hour traffic, I drove like a maniac to Madison, ran in the office and pleaded for the Dr. to sign the form.  He was there and signed it right away.

I ran out the door, jumped in the car and raced over to school (15 minutes to go two miles because of traffic).  I dashed in the office and was about to hand the form to the principal when she said, there was a problem with the volleyball team.

I followed her over to the gym and saw Katie still dressed in her school clothes.  "Change your clothes, Katie." I ordered.

The trouble with the team....two teams scheduled the gym at the same time on the same day.
This is not a problem for us...but for most of the other players.  Huge issue.
So the girls wandered around and  jogged outside a little as the people in charge tried to figure a solution.

I went back to the office and filled out more forms for an upcoming field trip and headed back to the gym.

The sixth graders were scrimmaging with the seventh graders.

When 4:30 came, I summoned Katie over and said we need to get home because your friend Izzy is coming over at 6:00 to work on your school project. (egg drop)

Katie said. "My knee pads must be too tight.  Look! My legs are purple."

Wow! They really did look strange.

One of the coaches came over and agreed that they looked strange.  She said we should go right to the Dr.

And so we did.

The drive back to the Dr. office was congested and crazy from school.
I nearly died from the stress.

We got there at 4:50.

All the docs were gone. But a nurse kindly saw us.

She looked at her legs and agreed they were strangely colored and hot.
(I thought this might be a reaction to the shots.)

She said we could stay and a Dr. would be in at 5:45 for the night shift.
I asked her if Katie was her child, would she come all the way back?
She said yes.

So, because Katie had her egg drop meeting at our house from 6-7:00, I made an appointment for
7:30.

You got that right.  Go home. Eat. Do school work for an hour.
Get back in the car and drive back to Madison at 7:30 at night.

I said to Patrick at 7:00.  She seems fine.  I think we can stay home.
He encouraged me to go.  Better safe than sorry.

So the girls worked on their project, which was due this morning, until 7:00.
We jumped in the car to drive Izzy home.  It was a mad dash to get to the Dr. office by 7:30 but we made it. (I have this thing about being late. Don't like it at all.)

So we were called quickly to go back to the examining room.
A nurse came in to get the basic scoop.

She listened to our story of fever and purple legs.
She listened to Katie's heart and lungs.

Then she looked.  She agreed that Katie's legs were discolored.
She said, "Why are your white bracelets blueish?"
"And your fingernails?"

hum.
that's weird.

She noticed and I did too at this point that the color seemed darker at the hair follicles.
I looked to her and said, "Katie wore a brand new black skirt to school today."

And we knew.

Katie's legs had been dyed by the skirt and because she wasn't wearing it anymore I didn't and certainly Katie didn't think of it.

I felt like a dummy.
The nurse was very nice and said she could remember her son's jeans doing this to his legs and that kind of tipped her off.
Katie was very sorry.  But really, how could she know.

Unfortunately, we still had to see the Dr. and the Medical student.  (both very nice but a waste of our precious school night time.)

We did not get home until 9:00.
And there was still homework to be done.

This morning as we headed to school, I asked if Katie had brushed her teeth and had her gym clothes.
Yes.  Yes.  No lunch needed today.  Hot lunch.

Because I had Dr. appointment this morning for blood tests I wouldn't  be stopping to get a Chai so we took Ginny along with us to school.

We arrived at school at 7:45.  Nice and early.

As we pulled into the parking lot, Katie said, "I forgot my 'egg drop' project."

I looked at her and my mouth dropped open and I wanted to cry.
I would have to drive home, in the hideous traffic, and get her dumb project and bring it right back to school, in the hideous traffic.

It was my worst nightmare.

So off I sped to get the project. I dropped Ginny off at home.
Brought the project  back to school.  Took it to her class and headed home.

Since I was afraid to miss my appointment I went right my Dr. office, which is right near my home.
I was 20 minutes early but seeing that this was just lab work, I would go and hope they could get me in early.  After 35 minutes of waiting....I went back up to the window and said, 'do I have the time wrong for my appointment?  I've been waiting a while."

To that she said, "Oh!  You can go right back to the lab and give them your purple paper."

Of course.

What a horrible 18 hours.

I am now home and plan to sit on my couch and pray that the phone does not ring.

Me forgetting. Stupendously stupid medical scare.  Rush hour traffic. Katie forgetting.

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad.

Hopefully,
The End.

Donna


























Thursday, September 06, 2012

Library of Congress Pictures

Source: flickr.com via Donna on Pinterest


I found a few pictures last night that are catalogued on Flicker by the Library of Congress.

I am sure Andrew Lyman is making his wife laugh.  Don't you just know it?
Life was so hard then. Harder than we can ever imagine.
But these two....they can laugh about something and that makes me love this picture.
I want to know their story.

And by the way...I think I have the same bra she does.

Source: flickr.com via Donna on Pinterest


These sweet innocents are orphans from the Titanic.
They are boys from France. Their papa perished.

Source: flickr.com via Donna on Pinterest


Only in America.

Source: flickr.com via Donna on Pinterest

~jack delano

Sweet home Chicago.

This is a masterpiece.

****


"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst."
~Henri Cartier-Bresson


"Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph."
~Matt Hardy


"A good photograph is one that communicates a fact, touches the heart, and leaves the viewer a changed person for having seen it.  It is, in a word, effective."


Encourage one another,
Donna






Wednesday, September 05, 2012

katie

Which one do you like better?

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I did this two years ago and spotted it the other day.
And since it is September I decided to share it.

That font is Carrotflower by Tart Studio fonts.
She has a few more fonts I love.  The girl who designed this font, designed my logo.

The pictures were taken on Matthew and Melinda's deck, right after Asher was born.
Can you tell by the bokeh?


Katie is home sick today.  Yesterday she had her sports physical and I decided that it was time to get the Chicken Pox vaccine.  Along with that she got four other vaccines.

So this morning at six o'clock she woke me to say, "I didn't sleep much last night.  My arms and ribs are sore." I touched her head and she was very hot.

I'm not sure if it is from the vaccines or if she caught Asher's fever from the weekend.

So Katie is home resting on the couch.
Not a good way to start the school year.


I made meatloaf for dinner last night.
It was good.

I'm going to put an English roast in the crock pot in a minute.
That will take care of dinner tonight.
Patrick will have that with cottage cheese and milk and toast.

I will have some sliced heirloom tomatoes with my lunch and dinner.
I bought some fresh basil and soft mozzarella at the store yesterday.
That soft mozzarella is very nice compared to the chewy stuff I have eaten all my life.

My cherry tomatoes plant is heavy with fruit and is tipping over.
A cardinal keeps coming to eat the tomatoes.
Did you know cardinals like tomatoes?

I didn't.

Another thing I didn't know was that self rising flour is not a good thing to use if you are making cookie dough to eat.

I used some the other day and my dough was so salty I had to throw it away.

So that's what's happening around here. I'm doing laundry and cooking and driving and picking tomatoes and chasing after Ginny and learning how to do a stem graph and watching over a sick little girl.

It's a quiet life.
But I like it.



Encourage one another,
Donna






Tuesday, September 04, 2012

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So...if you hadn't guessed, we went to Omaha for Asher's birthday!
Emma came in from Chicago on the bus, we got Katie out of school early and headed to Omaha with the whole family...including Ginny.

Asher has a very cute little voice. We adore hearing every little thing he says.
He is devoted to McQueeny and Finn (characters from the movie Cars.)


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Melinda made him a darling watermelon cake.
It was a white layer cake with dyed frosting.  I think it turned out really well!

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Grove 2
I took picture with my phone on the way there....

What cheer.

What Cheer Iowa.

Sunset

Birthday boy. Two.

Finally out of gas.

Ginny was a hand full.
And then she pooped out.


On the way home I took more Instagrams.

Way home

.

Easy rider

Ginny is her best self on a car ride.


Iowa


Martel Iowa


Iowa at Sixty-two miles per hour.


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Asher and McQueeny.
Best Friends.

Thank you Matthew and Melinda for letting us come to visit.
It's one of my very favorite things to do in the whole world.

Lots of love,
Donna























Friday, August 31, 2012

Flash Back Friday; Asher is two today!

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This is Asher on the day he was born.
My first picture of him was taken with my iPhone.

Matthew and Melinda were kind of shell shocked.  The C-section came as a big surprise.
Asher was way across the room in his 'warmer'.


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Carol and I quietly came into the room and marveled at this alert, beautiful child.

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Then Melinda was feeling a little better and she and Asher had many moments of looking into one another's eyes.  It was very special.

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Did you ever see such a relaxed daddy?


Happy Birthday Asher.

You are very loved.

Yaya

Thursday, August 30, 2012

After three half days, Katie has a whole day today and tomorrow.

This is what she gave to me to sign yesterday afternoon.

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It made me very happy and thankful to read it!

Even tho the math program they use at Blessed Sacrament makes me want to scream and shout,
I love that they focus on the same good things that matter to me and I love their bold devotion to Jesus.


QB

Face.

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touchdown

In which, Katie channels Helen Keller.


****

Why these pictures from five years ago?
I don't know.  They were funny and cute.

Any one remember seeing them before?


Happy Thursday.
Wishing you a wonderful day!
Hope those of you in the path of Isaac are okay!

Encourage one another,
Donna




Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Let the light so shine....

Pretty lines

This morning the light was very pretty shining on my and my chai.

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Last night the light was very pretty as it sunk behind the pines.


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the light

Three

the light...

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the light....


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a photographers best friend.

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Photograph:  to write with light

smoke

Encourage one another,
Donna