Friday, July 5, 2013

A Re-beginning


It is with a heart that weighs about as much as it normally does, but not without a tinge of sadness that I inform you that my blog, Fish Out Of Water, will soon be no more.  Most likely forever.  I add that little addendum because though I plan to post no more for the foreseeable future, I do not plan to remove it from blogger.  I worked too hard to get what I had up and on the chance that I one day might possibly want to return to FOW, I don’t want to have to start over from scratch. 

I will be focusing on my blog for my business, Storybook Pictures (which is a HUGE work in progress so I’m not even sharing that web address right now) and a blog that I stated a while back but have not been good at posting on for my family (Our McParty of Five; http://ourmcpartyoffive.blogspot.com/ ).  You are welcome to visit either blog, though I will not be posting on Facebook anymore when I have written something new.  You can sign up for email alerts or just check up on it every once in a while.  I will probably not post that often anyway.  If you check out my mcparty of five blog, you will see that I have not posted in almost a year.  I do plan to post more than yearly, especially now that FOW is kaput.
 
So, to close, here is a pic of my 3 little models from a recent test shoot. 
 
Oh, and my sister had her second daughter last night! Yeah for her and her family!  I would post some pics of my new little niece, but they live in darn NYC and I am down her in the awesome ATL.
In the meantime, here is a picture of me and my sister's oldest daughter (who is 2) from back in Feb. when I went up for a visit.
 
 

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Rain and a talented squirrel

I'm sitting here in my bathing suit, wishing we could be at the pool.  However, after we all got changed and I got the pool bag all ready, we noticed just as we were about to walk out the door that it is raining.  We are staying in our suits hoping it'll slow down soon so we can still go to the pool.  There's no thunder so I think it'll be ok.  I prefer sunshine, but these kids need to get some energy out!

So, while I'm waiting on the rain, I decided to do a quick post. 

Here's a fun pic;

 
 
There is this very talented squirrel in our back yard.  He somehow manages to scale our house and climb up the window and then fling himself over to the bird feeder that hangs from the over hang, while managing to continue to hang on to the window frame. I have yet to see exactly how he does it.  He's done it several times though.  I'm hoping to catch him in the act one time.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

A little more

Some more pictures from my 31 days of picture takin' project;



Before I start, I will admit that some of these pictures were not taken on separate days.  The first 4 were all taken on the same day on a recent trip to Callaway Gardens.


I love this picture.  I love the way the light comes through the flowers making them look translucent and almost painted.  I think I'm going to have to print and frame this one.



A red tailed hawk at the birds of prey show at Callaway Gardens.

 


My 3 natural beauties.



 

My youngest in some sort of water relay on field day.

 

My middle child playing the balloon toss on field day. 
 

My oldest getting ready to start her field day.






More pictures later.
 

Friday, May 24, 2013

Before and After School

Lest you think I have slacked on my 31 days of picture takin', I am here to say I have not.  I've been taking pictures everyday.  I just haven't posted them.  That's always been what's held me back from doing one of those 31 day/365 day projects.  It's the posting of the pics that I seem to run out of time for. 

I will share with you the last 9 days of pictures tomorrow.  Today, I want to share a before and after picture of sorts.  Yesterday was the last day of school  YaHoo!!  It is bittersweet.  I love summer.  I love having my kids home and I love going to the pool everyday and not having to set my alarm and not having to feel like we have to eat dinner right at 6 so the kids can get in bed at a decent time and not having to be in bed at a decent time and having no real schedule and not having to be sure everyone has a coat before we go out and not having to wash and sort so many socks since everyone will be wearing flip flops and I love watermelon and Popsicles and cookouts....and I could probably keeps going.  *big breath*

However, I can also appreciate the time I have when my kids are at school.  This year was a first for me.  My youngest started Kindergarten.  I was an emptynester from the hours of 7:45 and 2:45.  And I'll admit, it was kinda nice.  I remember when my youngest stopped napping in the afternoon.  That opened up the whole day for us.  I no longer had to be home at 1 so she could take a nap.  I had more time to be out.  Having them all at school all day was kinda like that, only better.  Cause this time, I had more time to be out by myself.  This last week of school I went into a kind of panic mode.  All I kept thinking was, ohmygosh!  I only have 4 days left to get anything done kid free!  And then the count down ensued.  I think I was pretty productive those last 4 days (and 2 of those were early release). 

And, aside from my struggle between my love for having them home and my love for running errands by myself, the end of another school year means they have grown some more.  Why won't they just stop already!!??  In the fall, I will have a 5th grader!!  Which means next year, I'll have a middle schooler!! 

I remember an episode of Modern Family.  The old dad, Jay, was defending his decision to get botox to his much younger wife.  He said to her, that in his head, he's still 40 years old.  And he walks around acting and thinking that he's a prime 40 year old man.  Until he happens to see his reflection in something.  And he thinks, "who's that old guy?"  (He's really supposed to be in his 60's).  That's kind of how I feel.  Except in my head, I am in my 20's.  But then I see my reflection or look at my ever growing older, getting bigger kids and think, "whose the old lady, who is obviously not in her 20's anymore, with the 3 not so little any more kids?"

There are fun things about them getting older.  There is so much stuff we can do now that we could not when they were younger.  Our conversations are getting more mature.  I can even leave my 10 year old home alone for a little bit, by herself!  But you do kind of miss those little kid days when they were so cute and said the cutest little things and wore those tiny little clothes that you got to pick yourself.  Alas, my younger sister is at that stage (as well as my husband's brother and his sister as well), so I am fine to be aunt to little ones and then give them back after a while. 

Nonetheless, I have babbled on for too long.  Here is what I wanted to show you in this post;


This first picture is from the first day of school, 10 months ago.  Left to right, my middle child was starting 2nd grade, my oldest was starting 4th and my youngest, kindergarten. 



This picture was taken yesterday, on the last day of school.  Look at how much my youngest's face has matured!!  She started the year with a mouth full of teeth and now she is missing quite a few.  And when those grown up teeth come all the way in, she'll look even older!  They all look like they have matured some over the last 10 months.  My oldest will be getting braces soon ($$$) which will change her look even more. 

*sigh*  I do love my growing little kiddos.

 For now our job as parents is to love our kids and to "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it."  Proverbs 22:6
Amen.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

I don't care if it's not good for you

How could you not be happy with a bowl of warm rolls nestled in a delicious, golden pool of garlic butter sitting in front of you?  I don't even need to order any other food.  (maybe a mint afterwards.)


Friday, May 10, 2013

The Next 7 Days

So in keeping with my 31 days of picture takin', here are the next 7 days of pics. 


Saturday was my middle daughter's 8th birthday party.  We had an art party this year.  They painted a parrot.  If you are Facebook friends with me, you've already seen all of the party pics.  Her birthday is on May 5, Cinco de Mayo, which she takes very seriously, hence the sombrero.


This is an added picture to this week's lot.  I was so proud of how this cake turned out, I had to share it. 


Her actual birthday was on Sunday. 


The rose bush in our yard is beginning to bloom.


With all the rain we've had this winter and spring, our grass is a lovely shade of green. 


My middle child is obsessed with Lego Friends.  For her birthday she got a number of new sets.  She brags that she now has 16 Lego sets all to her self.  That doesn't include the sets that her 2 sisters have.  Our basement currently looks like the Lego monster threw up. 
This picture is of the larger set she got for her birthday.  It is the summer riding camp.  If you are not familiar with LF, the details in these sets are amazing.  This is just the front view.  You should see the inside.  Maybe I'll show you that next week.


Playing Play-Doh with my youngest.
Honey's spaghetti al fresco.  (Honey, being my late grandmother. And yes, that's bacon in there.)

Friday, May 3, 2013

31 days of picture takin'

So, being that I am in to photography, people will occasionally ask if I've ever done one of those 365 projects.  That's where you take a picture every day for a year.  365 pictures.  And post them. 
I love photography.  But....come on.  That's a lot of picture takin'. 
However, I did think, I could probably do a 31 day project.  So, for the month of May, I am going to take at least one picture each day.  So as not to inundated you with 31 consecutive posts, I thought I'd share them a week at a time. 

Today is May 3.  So here are my first 3 days of pictures in my 31 day project.

Every spring, I get ferns to hang under the overhang of the house that is on the deck.  And every spring, we have a mommy bird who makes a nest and lays eggs in the fern.  The babies have now hatched.  Even though my second born thinks they are adorable, I think they look rather angry.  Still, it's fun to see them grow.


 


The irises in our yard are just beginning to bloom. 






The kids getting off the bus.  Only 14 days left!!
 

Monday, April 22, 2013

Where has the time gone...

 
Look at my toothless cutie. 
 
 
This is just one more piece of evidence that my children are growing up and fast.  Once those big, grown up teeth come in...she really won't be my baby anymore.  *sniff, sniff*






Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Playing Catch Up

I've been MIA for a little while.  We've been a little busy here. 

We had company.



My sister, her husband and daughter.


 Easter.



I didn't get a picture of our family in Easter attire, so this will have to do for an Easter pic. 


  Sickness.


This is why I didn't get a family Easter pic.  My youngest was sick on Easter Sunday.  Don't worry though.  I am going to get that Easter dress up pic. 


  GOBS of laundry because of said company and sickness. ( I do not have a picture of my dirty laundry but you can imagine.)



A spring break beach trip.


I love this picture, taken from quite a distance with my iPhone.  There was a dolphin swimming pretty close to shore.  My oldest (in her perfect runner's stride) is leading the pack in chasing it down.



  A family reunion. 


This is my husband's side of the family.  And we were even missing quite a few people!



Now I get to breathe for a minute (in between more laundry) before more company this weekend and my oldest daughter's first play.  It's all good though.  I like being busy.  I like having a reason to clean.  When I'm cleaning just for the sake of things being clean, that's good too, I do like things to be clean, but it's also a little hollow.  I know the kids won't appreciate it and will just come home and mess everything up again with lightening flash speed. 

So, now I'm off to go put away the laundry I did last week so I can refill the basket with the laundry I'm doing today.  Fun, fun fun. 



 

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Another Gadget

As I was cooking dinner again last night, another one of my favorite kitchen gadgets came to my attention.  It's the immersion blender my mom gave me for Christmas.  I started to pull out the big regular ole blender, but then spotted this new little treat and thought, oh ya! 

I used it to make a southwest sauce to go with the southwest chicken quesadillas we had for dinner.  The chicken I used was left over from the chicken fajitas we had the night before.  Yeah to me for making double use of one package of chicken.  (This is mainly because, if I cut it up right, I can feed all 3 of my girls on 1-1/2 pieces of chicken.  Don't worry, what we save in food by having girls, we make up for in clothes and shoes and accessories).  What I like about this gadget is that it is relatively small and doesn't take up much space, it's easy to clean and a bit easier to manipulate what you are trying to blend than just dumping it all in the blender and leaving your creation to the mercy of the blade at the bottom. 

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Go Go Gadget...

I wouldn't say I love to cook.  I like it, but can't go as far as to say I LOVE it.  I do it.  Cook that is.  All the time.  I cook dinner 5-6 nights a week and sometimes all 7.  However, I do love a good kitchen gadget.  And I love to look around in kitchen stores.  My current favorite is Sur la Table.  That store have everything you could possibly want for your kitchen and oh so many things that you didn't know you wanted but really really do once you've seen it. 

I don't have a lot of neat kitchen gadgets myself, mostly because my kitchen is in desperate need of a demolition and so I am currently lacking space for anything but the absolute necessities. 
So when I do get a new gadget, it is seldom.  Recently, my mother in law gave me a pancake pen (which I think she got at Williams Sonoma).  Some of you may be thinking, I've had one of those for years, and you are just now getting one...and excited about it??  Yes and yes.  It's such a simple device, if you can even call it that.  It squirts out pancake batter.  That all.  It squirts it out.  But it makes pancake making so much easier, more precise if you really like round pancakes which I do, and less messy. 

Maybe I could learn to love to cook if I had all sorts of cool gadgets.  And a really awesome kitchen.  And more time.  And fewer children.  And children that liked whatever I cooked.  And more time.  And a really awesome kitchen. 

Friday, March 15, 2013

Urrgghhh!! and other sounds of frustration!

Bear with me as I try to navigate through all the info I am going through in trying to work on my blog design. You may see some weird changes come and go, reappear and then disappear again.  I don't know what I'm doing.  It may take me a while to figure it all out and settle on what I want my blog to look like. 

Thursday, March 14, 2013

I Have and Idea! or Two

Have I mentioned before that I have a lot of ideas?  I do.  Sometimes I get frustrated or overwhelmed because I have what I think is a pretty good idea, but no idea of how to make it come about.  I sometimes spend what seems like endless amounts of  time "researching" some of my ideas online.  Which brings about another problem.  I feel really unproductive when all I do for a couple of hours is surf the web in search of answers to my how do I do it problem.  Maybe if I were getting paid for my time I would feel differently, but I'm not, so I don't. 

And then sometimes, by surfing the web (do people still say that?) I get more ideas.  And then there are so many things floating around in my head that nothing gets done or comes to fruition.  It's really frustrating!  Then I look around at the breakfast dishes in the sink and the laundry that I haven't even started and the fact that I am still in my p.j.'s and fuzzy slippers and it's getting on toward lunch time and I feel even worse. 

I think some of this may be a result of being an empty nester from 7:45-2:45 everyday.  I have more time on my hands now.  Time to theoretically get things done and explore my ideas.  Before, I might have had different ideas on things I wanted to do, but I would get so busy with the kid(s) at home that I never even pretended to follow through with any of them.  Plus, I would feel really guilty if all my kid did was see me sitting at the computer, for no apparent reason, not getting paid, for way too long, neglecting her and whatever else needed to be done. 

Maybe I just need to be better organized.  (another idea of mine).  Then I'll have time to take care of all my house and kid and wife duties AND complete an idea or two.  First, I need to organize all of the crazy ideas floating around in my head. 

My current main idea is to grow my blog, make it bigger, better and gain more readers.  There is SO much info out there on blogging though that it is terribly overwhelming and frustrating and a little depressing.  What I really want is for someone to just do it for me.  For free.  And then I'll take it from there.  And all the credit.  :)

And because I would rather read a blog post that has pictures, here are a few. (that have nothing to do with this post).



This is me trying to take a picture of myself with the new wireless remote I got for Christmas. 
 


The sunset from a recent trip to the beach.


An interesting bit of tree near the afore mentioned beach.



Friday, March 8, 2013

50 Beads of Different Colors

I gets lots of ideas.  Ideas on all sorts of things.  Ideas on ways to make money, ways to organize my house, ways to decorate or rearrange my house, ways to make my kids behave, ways to teach my kids, ways to help them become better people.... you get the idea.  There are lots of ideas floating around in my head.  Some turn out to be pretty stupid.  Like the time I tried to convince my friend to go in on an ironing business with me.  I HATE to iron.  What was I thinking???  Some turn out to be just too expensive.  Most of my house ideas fall into that category.  Some turn out to be too difficult. 

Recently, I had an idea to help my kids to be nicer to each other.  This idea was based off of a previous idea that fell into the too difficult category.  I won't go into all the details of that one because it was, well, too difficult and didn't work out anyway. 

My recent idea though seems to be working.  To some extent anyway.  The idea is, we have a jar of beads that sits on our kitchen table along side an empty jar.  Every time the girls do something nice for someone else (sans being asked), they get to put a bead into the empty jar.  When they do something nice for their sister, they get to put in 2 beads (cause it's harder to be nice to your sister).  Once the bead count gets to 50, we get to go get a special treat like get ice cream or something of the sort.  They just made it to 50 for the 3rd time.  In fact, they are doing so well, we decided to up it to 100 beads.  Meaning, either it'll take longer to get the treat or they are going to have to be even nicer to each other. 

All of this is really in an effort to get our kids to stop thinking about #1 and think of others first.  It's little things, like if you are in the basement retrieving your blankie and you see your sister's blankie down there too, pick it up and bring it to her.  Or if you got some smarties at school that day, share some with your sisters, even if it is just one tiny little smartie. Or when you are clearing the table and your sister is in the bathroom and hasn't cleared her place yet, get her plate for her. 

They are really in to it.  Granted, sometimes they are only doing something nice for the sole purpose of getting to put in a bead, but still, they are being nice.  I'm hoping it'll catch on at some point and they will just be nice to be nice for niceness sake. 

And you know, when someone does little nice things like that for you, you can't help but feel good and do nice things back. 

So,yay for the kids being a little bit nicer to each other and more thoughtful and yay for me coming up with an idea that actually works!!

Monday, February 25, 2013

In case you wanted to know...

Just wanted to let ya know that I posted something new on my Disney page.  You can see it by clicking on the Disney World tab at the top of this page. 

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Disney 2013-a

We just got back from another trip to WDW. So who wants to see the 300+ pictures I took??!! Just kiddin'. I won't do that to you. But I will tell you a little bit about it.

It was a lot of fun but too short. We were only in the parks for 2 days. I knew it was going to be short, but it was way short. We (I) felt rushed. And then exhausted from all the rushing. Tip #11; If you have the time, stay at least 4 days. If you don't have the time, maybe wait until you do (that'll give you more time to save too.) It was still good though. Since our kids are still young and we've been going to Disney as a family since they were even younger (this was my 10 year olds 5th time, 7 year olds 4th time and 5 year olds 3rd time) every time we go, there is something new they want to do. For us, that is mostly due to the fact that we don't have many thrill seekers in the family and the fact that our girls have historically been scaredy cats. That's fine with me though. My hus and I both don't care for roller coasters or thrill rides. I will never ride Tower of Terror or the Rockin' Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios. I will never ride Mt. Everest at Animal Kingdom. I will never (again) even ride Space Mountain. (I do like Big Thunder Mountain though).

This year, we added Test Track and Soarin' at Epcot. We haven't ridden these before mostly because of the lines. This time, we got fast passes and walked right on. (Yeah for fast passes! If you are unfamiliar with these, become familiar before you go). They loved Soarin'. My 7 year old almost threw up on Test Track. Proof that she may join the ranks of the non thrill ride club with her mom and dad. My 5 year old yells out in the middle of the ride that if it doesn't stop soon, she was going to pee in her pants. I couldn't tell if she was just trying to be funny or not, but she didn't pee. Thank goodness. So the 7 year old and I had to sit down for a bit after the ride and let her tummy catch up with the rest of her. She did not throw up.

We got to see the new Fantasy Land at Magic Kingdom. It was a bit too crowded to get to explore it the way I would have wanted too, but it was neat. Despite the crowds, we got to do almost everything we wanted to. I think Peter Pan was the only ride we didn't get to do. It'll be another couple years before we go back to the parks and spend any significant time. Next time, I'd like to go for a good bit longer than just 2 days. We will be back down in Florida this summer to visit my parents. While there, I'm sure we'll make it over to Disney and do the non park things. We do that almost every time we go to FL. That'll have to hold us over until we can "do" Disney again.
Sigh. I do love Disney.

A family picture with the Mouse himself.


The best picture of the 300+ I took (though a little blurry. iphone.) My 5 year old kept covering her eyes (and ears) while my 7 year old drove on the Tomorrowland Speedway, all the while, the 7 year old had mad concentration. The 5 year old kept thinking she was going to crash us.
Epcot is my favorite park. Tip #12; Contrary to popular belief, Epcot is great for little kids too. We told our kids that with only 2 days, they had to choose 2 parks to visit. Of the 4, of course MK was #1 but #2, they chose Epcot.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Pinterest Success

I love Pinterest, though I am far from an addict.  I have gotten several good ideas from Pinterest though, some of which have even come to fruition.  And by fruition, I mean it looks like what it does on Pinterest.  Many a time have I gotten an idea of some sort of craft or project to make and many a time have I chucked it in the trash because it did not turn out right. 

I wanted to share with you 2 recent successes. 

The first is a Christmas countdown calendar.  I know, who wants to talk about Christmas right after Valentines and so close to Easter.  But it was a Pinterest success so I wanted to share. 


I made the backing out of felt (which can be bought in yards from Hancock Fabric).  The pockets are library card pockets I got from Lakeshore Learning.  I used Christmas paper (from Michaels) to cover the pockets and then the kids helped add embellishments like buttons, ribbons and stickers.  I printed the numbers out of word on the computer.  The idea then is to put a card in each pocket that has a Christmas activity on it.  So each day, you have an activity to do.  I will probably make some changes next year to some of the activities.  Some were too involved or took too long to do.  Most need to be quick, easy things.  The exceptions are making Christmas cookies, watching a Christmas movie and going to see Christmas lights.  Those things obviously take planning and time. 

My second success is a precursor to a couple more blog posts.  It was done in preparation for our recent trip to Disney World.



 
 
 
Aren't these just the cutest things you've ever seen!? 
I got mini oreos for the ears and large ones for the body.  I used double stuff because it's double the stuff, but next time, I'll probably use the regular ones.  I got the red candy chocolate from Michaels.  You were supposed to use bigger white dots for the buttons but I already had these tiny ones, so I just used them.  Next time I will probably also use the dark chocolate to "glue" the ears on so it'll blend in better. 
 
 
I'll let you know if I have anymore Pinterest successes.  I'm pretty proud of these 2.  

Monday, February 11, 2013

Ending in Success

So despite our clothing issues, once they got out the door, the Father Daughter Dance turned out to be a big success.  Everyone came back, busting through the door, excited to tell me all about it.  I'm so glad they can, and look forward to, this special time with their dad.

We were a little rushed this year with the timing, so I didn't get the kind of pictures I wanted to, but I thought these turned out pretty good.