Living In a Girl's World

The “X”

The “star”

The “triangle”

The “sphere”

And my favorite – the “wishbone”

Next week’s challenge is black and white.

I’ve been maintaining my level of exercise since last week.  I did not, however, get a run in on Saturday before the WTB like I was hoping.  Traveler’s step-great-grandmother passed last week and the girls and I ended up stopping by his grandparent’s house instead.  I figure that as good of a reason as any to not exercise.  I ate a little more than I should have at the party.  But I did get my 4 mile run in on Monday, and I’m hoping that I can make the 4-mile mark my new baseline.  (Now that I’ve put that out there, I hope I’m not doing any psychological damage to myself for my run in an hour.)  I am trying to get back into snacking on the carrots and fruit instead of looking for the bag of chips or just not eating anything because nothing sounds good.

So this next week I am going to continue with my runs 3 days a week.  I think come August I’m going to try and add another day in there – maybe a weekend day.  I know I need to be running more days than not.  I haven’t been able to get myself back to shredding.  I really think it harmed my exercise ADD.  I have finally broken through the boredom factor of running on the treadmill, and I don’t want to end up there.  Not that I didn’t love what shredding did for my muscle tone, but I am running a frickin’ half marathon in 3 months, I can’t afford to be bored with the treadmill!

So this last week I’ve been trying to think of what I have learned.   (I think it’s really been 2 or 3 since I last participated in Jo-Lynne’s carnival).

1. I can talk to my kids without my exasperated tone and make more progress than expected.
2. I love having Traveler home so he can participate in the fun stuff we do as a family.
3. I REALLY REALLY like my MacBook.
4. Sweet Pea has let me know that she enjoys having just “us” time. (I wish I could do it more often.)
5. The girls are not used to constantly going every day and get worn out very easily which can make for very interesting afternoons filled with lots of drama.
6. This sweet tea is my new favorite “mommy drink”. Mixed with some lemonade? One word. Awesome.
7. I love my friends (even though that’s not new, but I love them all the same and it bears repeating!)

So what did you learn this week?

Last night was a blast.  The weather was not perfect; a huge front literally blew through for about an hour or so, and we all headed inside.  Luckily our friends have a decent-sized house and we all clamored in.  There were corn dogs and chips and dip and chili and cotton candy, Oh My!  There was also balloon bending, face painting, and carnival games, Oh My!  The girls played hard.  They didn’t really dress up other than to find some older, stained clothes to wear (play clothes), and I didn’t comb their hair yesterday either (on purpose, really, just so they’d look a little more trashy!).  So on top of the wind and the trampoline and the kiddie pool, they looked fantastic, let me tell you!

I was behind the camera most of the day.  I will share with you some of my favorite costumes and maybe even a picture of me with sparkly eyeliner on.  And if you know me, that is a shocker all in itself.

So here is a little recap of my favorites.

Sweet Pea with the corn dog she pilfered from me.  She went on to eat another whole one by herself.

Sass with her own personal balloon hat creation.

And really the only thing that is honestly different about how I normally look from this picture is the sparkly eyeliner and the ponytail (it’s usually just up in a clip).  You can’t see the leopard print bra underneath my white shirt or the short shorts or the 3-inch heels that I wear once a year. (I may have to put it all back on just to get a full-length picture – for posterity.)

Here is the little midway corner of the backyard.  The trailer in the background? Part of the normal backyard environment at our hosts’ house.

Our hostess on the right.  The Bearded Lady.  The Lion Tamer.

The word that is hard to read is “eye”. I’m not a beer drinker, but I can appreciate this shirt.

The Host – barking out the winners’ name.

(They have prizes for best dude, best chick, best hair, best kid, and best car.)

Our hostess sporting the Calvin Klein “tighty-whitey wife-beater” tank (made out of size 50s) while trying to keep the cotton candy on the stick in 35 mph winds.  Hence the laughter.

And I had to add this picture in.  Do you see the faux muffin top? She made it out of a leg of pantyhose stuffed with a rolled up towel. Genius!

White Trash Bash 2009 was declared a success.  Next year’s theme is a Luau.  I may have to start scouting out muumuu’s for the girls and myself!

Fourth of July Fireworks 2009

I was planning on taking pictures of the yummy foods we enjoyed at the 2 BBQ’s we went to, but for some reason my camera battery was dead and I had to charge it at BBQ #2 in time to see what I would capture of the fireworks.  I’m intrigued by the pictures I did get.  I just kept taking picture after picture after picture. There were a lot that didn’t turn out and a lot that were of black sky.  My shutter speed was really slow (I think my “fireworks” setting is 80 ISO) and hence the squiggle lines instead of the colorful sparks in the sky.

Why not check out what others captured from their celebrations?

I was bad….very, very bad on the 4th.  I didn’t eat a ton of sweets, but I thoroughly enjoyed at least a half of a bag of BBQ potato chips, a loaded hamburger, and a brat…in addition to my 5 alcoholic beverages.  It was a fun day, let me tell you.

But I made up for all that fun on Saturday by running 4 miles on Monday.  It may not seem like much of a milestone, but I’ve yet to hit that mark, and I know I need to pick up the pace (pun intended) if I expect to make it to my goal of running the whole half-marathon in October.  I have been good with the exercise, making sure I get on that treadmill whether I like it or not.  Today I did, but only for 3 miles.  I have too much to do today for a long run, but I ran faster than usual.

This weekend there is another party, and I will just admit now that I will be enjoying the corn dogs and cotton candy and roasted corn and chips and dip and alcohol.  But I am going to do my best to get on the treadmill Saturday before the party, so at least I’m starting off on the right foot.

I missed last week’s You Capture hosted by Beth over at Folding Laundry.  I meant to do something for the theme of “summertime”, but instead I spent most of last week either in Washington D.C. playing (mostly in rain or overcast skies, so it didn’t really FEEL like summertime to me – check out my pictures from that trip here and here).  But this week’s challenge was our choice.  I love nature.  I love trying to capture the 3D look of reality with what turns out on the camera. I have usually failed in the past, but since Beth started You Capture I have tried new and exciting things with my camera and found that I just have to play and take lots of pictures and some of them will be what I’m looking for.

On Sunday I was fully recovered from my trip and we only had a gaping hole in our living room wall instead of broken pipes and no running water, so after church we headed out to a local nursery that has the reputation of being really expensive.  Well, we found out why.  They have 5 acres…of nursery… right in the middle of town.  Rows and rows of trees and shrubs and plants and flowers – some native to the region and some requiring significantly more water.  And fountains and yard ornaments and Oh My!  I’ve taken to traveling everywhere with my camera in my purse, because you just never know.  Unfortunately when I do eventually get my dream camera (Nikon D60 for those of you who care), I don’t think it will fit in my purse.  Well, the kind of purse I like to carry anyway.  So, wait.  What was I talking about?  Oh, yeah. The nursery.  I get side tracked sometimes and head off on tangents.  Forgive me.

I started snapping some pictures and here are my favorites.

(Please note, I do not have a green thumb, so I didn’t bother to find out what all these different plants and flowers are.  I just ooh and ahh over them.  I don’t need to know their names.)

The next two were also taken at the nursery, and I love the sweetness they show along with they are almost identical in nature but taken separately at different times in different areas.

And one last one, just because Sass was in a mood during this trip and it shows so completely in her expression.

I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone else chose as their “choice” this week.