Growing up!

I know y’all are getting bored with my bird photos, but our baby birdies that live right outside our door are growing like weeds! But cute weeds.

Photo of birds in nest

Today, I took this photo of the barn swallows we have living outside our front door (click to enlarge):

What kind of bird is this?

Bird in driveway next door 1/08

Originally uploaded by jayandmelanie1978.

I saw this bird in the driveway next door to our house. I thought it was a beautiful bird, but I don’t know what kind of bird it is. I swear, I thought it was a sandpiper when I first saw it, but we’re not exactly near any large bodies of water. I thought I’d post this and see if anyone knew what kind of bird this was.

The dangers of having photos online

So, I just looked at my flickr account, and one picture of me from about 1991 – I have very long hair and braces – has had 268 views. ?!?!?

I’m sure somebody has posted it somewhere, saying, ‘Hey, go look at this dork!’

Fourth of July Fireworks, Rescheduled

Tonight the city put on its fourth of July fireworks, which was rained out on the 4th. Gabriel sat transfixed, exclaiming, “WOW!” every so often. Mikaela showed little interest and busied herself buckling her stroller buckle. I tried to take a few pix, but man, is it hard to get photos of fireworks with a digital camera!

Kids

 

Mikaela and her beloved doggie

 

Oh, the things fathers must endure

Storm’s A-Brewin’

Sunset after the storm

View from my back deck tonight …

Leezard

This little fella was outside our front door tonight, clinging to a small plant. We sure do have a lot of lizards ’round these parts!

Caption me

This AP photo of Bush and Putin I found on cnn.com is just SCREAMING to be captioned.

Cows

Jay and I were out house-hunting Saturday in a rural area of the county, when we happened upon a herd of cows. I had my camera, so I decided to get a few photos.

Flower growing in my front yard

New photos

Photos from TN trip

Jay, Eric (the groom), bro-in-law Glen

Happy couple (Amanda & Eric)

my nieces, nephew & my children

my mom and dad

Mikaela photos

I took these today. It takes a MAJOR effort to get Mikaela to 1) look at the camera 2) stand still 3) smile  – all at the same time. Her usual MO is to run giggling when I get the camera out, because she knows this annoys me – and no amount of coaxing, threatening, or trying to make it seem like a fun game will deter her. I was only able to get these shots of her smiling because I was tickling her.

 Shoot, I oughta photoshop her face from one of these pictures onto her bluebonnets picture that didn’t turn out!

2007 bluebonnet photo, try #2

Wind, sun and uncooperative children made it a fairly unsuccessful photo shoot, again.

Miss Priss

Click link below to see pix:

Palm Sunday pictures

I just LOOK cute and innocent

Icy hummingbird feeder

photos

You know, I’m never entirely satisfied with any photo taken of me. This one makes me look fat; my face is shiny in that one. Pre-2000 photos of me showcase my fuzzy eyebrows before I started plucking them, which look like wooly caterpillars about to wriggle off of my face.

I think I’m going to take all the pictures of me with things I like and mesh them into one. That oughta be one heck of a photoshop project. Would it be wrong to borrow a body part from J’Lo?

I have photoshopped pictures in the past, mostly for fun. Don’t believe the saying “pictures never lie” – photoshop can make almost anything possible.

“Look at that pretty sunset that God made.”

Jay and I were walking out of Target this evening with the kids in tow. We’d been rushing around all day, as usual. On our way to our minivan, we passed a lady who was putting her kids into her car. She popped her head up as we passed and exclaimed, wide-eyed, “Just look at that pretty sunset that God made!”

I stopped and looked at it and acknowledged her, and then she told us to have a blessed evening. I passed her by and then REALLY looked at the sunset – something I don’t do nearly enough in my hustle and bustle lately – and thanked God for it.

My description might make her sound a little loony, but she wasn’t – she was overflowing with joy and wanted everyone to Know what she Knows. I was touched.

I’ve been a Christian since I was 3. But I spent a lot of my younger years living my life for no one but myself in reality.

And I still struggle. I just get so caught up with life. There’s always an excuse not to get up and go to church on Sunday morning – and we are trying hard to stop making them and just GO.

It’s even been hard to say a complete prayer since I had kids. I mean, I have .. I DO pray, but my prayer life is definitely not what it once was. My mind wanders all too often to what I need to do tomorrow, what the kids are getting into, you name it.

But, I keep learning the same lesson over and over again, and you think it would’ve sunk in by now: without praying before and during my day, it always turns out to be stressful and/or just downright horrible. But when I start the day out by asking God for the strength and wisdom and patience to get through that day, it’s SO much easier to cope.

Speaking of Christianity, I read two articles recently that really impacted me. I’d like to share them with you.

Liberal Christianity Article

Pulling Weeds and Planting Seeds