Thursday, May 31

Playing Catch


Playing catch
Originally uploaded by Jean 1.

My husband played baseball throughout his youth and had told me that he had dreamed of having a son to play catch with one day. This year his dream has come to life in our backyard. Our precious son, seven and half years of rugged boy-ness, is on a coach pitch baseball team. He is a quick study, after ten minutes of instructive demonstrations and hand manipulations, he was catching nearly every ball.

Wednesday, May 30

Finding Beauty


butterfly among the flowers
Originally uploaded by Jean 1.

We love summer around our house. And I mean LOVE IT. We love the beautiful flowers, the long days with no school, the freedom and the butterflies. { If you look closely there is a black butterfly at the top grouping of flowers. } The kids had been searching for weeks so they were so excited to spot their first butterfly of the season.
Happy summer (just 5 1/2 more days of school for my kids) and good reading. :)

Tuesday, May 29

Daddy and Christi


Daddy and Christi
Originally uploaded by Jean 1.

Our favorite place to eat as a family is Hinode Japanese Steakhouse. And everyone but Ryan loves sushi rolls. We have a few favorites, but Christi has one favorite, the Springfield Roll. She has become quite the sushi master, eating 6 or 8 pieces at a sitting, using chopsticks for kids no less. What a difference from my childhood of going to Pizza Inn every two weeks or staying the night with Jean 2 so I could go to McDonald's on Fridays.

Monday, May 28

Ryan and his new spike-y do


Ryan and his new spike-y do
Originally uploaded by Jean 1.

Ryan, my precious boy, loves to have his hair blow dried. So when we went to get haircuts, he made a deal with the stylist...She could style his hair however she wanted if she would first blow dry his hair. I think he looks rather handsome. ;)

Bria after her new haircut


Bria after her new haircut
Originally uploaded by Jean 1.

I am breathless when I look at this picture of Bria. She's so grown up, too grown up. I know she's only 13, but I feel like I'm going to turn around tomorrow and be standing at her gradution. After a tough adjustment year organization wise that affected her grades and a productive year of making LOTS of new friends, things are about to relax as summer approaches. I am so proud of who she is, strong and brilliant.

Sunday, May 27

Nicki's eyes


Nicki's eyes
Originally uploaded by Jean 1.

Nicki has green eyes. That's not so unusual unless you take into account that only one other person on both sides of the family has green eyes..and that's my mom. I always loved my mom's green eyes, so exotic to me since all of ous kids had dad's dark brown eyes. When our first child was born, I was surprised to see she had blue eyes, and then when Nicki came along her eyes started blue and then turned to green...I fell in love with them.

Saturday, May 26



Tabblo: Underwater Adventures at the Imax


Ryan's Primary Family (Kindergarteners and First graders) took an end of year field trip to the Imax Theatre. The show was Underwater Adventures. The screen is gigantic, which made for some pretty tense moments during hunt scenes. Everyone had a great time.

... See my Tabblo>


Friday, May 25

My new fav pic of Christy


My new fav pic of Christy
Originally uploaded by Jean 1.

This, my friends, is my new favorite picture of my youngest. She kept asking me to take her picture this day and posed each time. All of a sudden there was this Angel that appeared on my camera screen.

"She utters not a single word, but in her eyes conversations are heard."

Wednesday, May 23

Baby Robins


Baby Robins
Originally uploaded by Jean 1.

Christy and I went to Daddy's work to buy a new van and while we were there Daddy showed us a new addition to the Automotive family. There are six baby robins living in a small shrub outside the door of the Pontiac side of the carlot.
By the way, we like our new van, too! :)

Tuesday, May 22

New Friends

My daughter and I made three new friends today. The names of our new friends are Megan, Rachel and Izzy. They are the cutest little girls and so fun that my daughter has played and talked with them for hours already. I love hearing the cute conversations going on, the laughing about Scooby Doo and what needs to go in their purses. You know, typical little girl stuff. We met them during one of our weekly trips to Borders Bookstore in the kids section. Christine would bring me books to read, I would read them then she would head out to find something else for me to read. Sometimes, during one of our reading sessions, we will have other children come along and listen to the story as well. It was during this time that noticed the three little girls, waiting patiently for someone to notice them and invite them to come and play. My daughter and I spent some time with them, invited them to our house to play dress up and posed together for some pictures. I am so glad that we met them and look forward to many more playdates for Christine with her new pals.

Photo takes during a playdate with our new friends.

Monday, May 21

I'm Back!

Well, I've been on a bit of a sabbatical from this blog. Life got busy, time got short and priorities were organized to make more room. I've still been contributing to A Pair of Jeans and to writing.com. Now, I'm a bit freer and decided to give this blog a bit more attention. I have decided to try to make it more of a blogography...meaning a photography blog...one picture and a bit of writing to go with it.



Today I make my entrance to this version of blogging, I hope you enjoy.



Christi and I love going to bookstores once a week. Usually we go on Thursday mornings. There is a story time that we sometimes try to catch, but usually we just like to look at the books ourselves and spend time just talking quietly and sharing a lunch. This is the lunch that was chosen this past trip. We had a nice piece of mud pie cheese cake (Christi ate most of it, not good at sharing desserts) a apple wood ham sandwich and I had a vanilla latte (I had all of it, I'm not too good at sharing caffeine). It was a lovely time spent talking and eating and just relaxing.