OOOOOHHH FUN!!

I am really liking this website!! So, she also has put storyboard templates on her page! Here is my first...

Like?

This was going to be a "wordless wednesday" post, but I just couldn't go without putting something here. I found a website that provides free actions for Photoshop Elements and I am really excited about it. This picture includes 2 of those actions. It almost looks like the pictures of me when I was Jackson's age. The "vintage" look with the rounded edges. I am really on the fence on if I like the coloring or not, but I thought I would post it anyway for your opinions.

A Secret

Year: 2010

Month: May

Day: 9th

Occasion(s): My 28th Birthday and my 2nd Mother's Day

One memorable gift: Surprise destination trip ... just Mom and me.

Can you guess where? Well, if you can't, here are a few hints...I bet you still don't have any idea, do you? Those of you who already know, just shhhh...That wasn't much more help, was it?

Am I at least allowing you to get a little warmer with your guesses or are you still freezing cold?

Does this look familiar to anyone at all? I bet you've guessed it now!! And, if you haven't... um... keeping comments to myself.

But, that's right, we went to San Fransisco! You ask, "How did she keep it a secret for so long?" Well, you see, I love to be surprised. And when Mom offered the trip to me in February or March, I was so excited about the unknown that I didn't want to know. I will tell you that SF was not at the top of my list for places to go, but I am so glad I went and would go back if I had the chance.

So, how/when did she tell me where we were going. That's kind of the funny part. We were in the airport having our luggage checked and she asked the lady a question to make sure that our luggage would follow us all the way to our final destination because we didn't have a direct flight. The lady's response: "Yes, the luggage will follow you to San Fransisco". Mom and I just looked at each other and smiled. I am not sure when she would have told me, but that didn't matter any more.

After leaving the luggage lady, we were on the way to security and mom told me that the reason why she chose San Fransisco was because that was her mother's favorite city and she had never been there before. She wanted to go and visit and see what it was like and what better way to do that than to go with her daughter. I almost started to cry, so I jokingly asked her to stop talking. I just wanted to be excited about the trip! For those of you that do not know, my mother's mom ("Grammy") passed away in February of 2008. She was 80 years old. Infact, she had just celebrated her 80th birthday on February 5th of that year (and passed on the 20th). She was a wonderful lady and a very special Mom and Grandmother to four children and eleven grandchildren. Needless to say, I was thrilled to be sharing this experience with my mom.

We only where in San Fransisco for a weekend but it was jammed packed with sight-seeing and tours. Mom loves to do those kinds of things because you learn so much more about the, um, "behind the scenes" stuff about the big cities. Especially when you have a good tour guide.

We visited the Golden Gate BridgeAte at Boudin Bakery each morning for breakfast, rode a double decker bus for a tour and got just a wee bit burnt after we only talked about putting sunscreen on, took a tour of Alcatraz...Saw the production "Wicked" with a dear friend of mine that lives near the area, saw the most expensive home in San Fransisco -- which is owned by Danielle Steele, toured downtown twice but saw different things each time, had a wonderful veiw of Lombard Street but my camera just wouldn't take a good picture of it, rode a cable car, and to wrap up the tours, we were able to view these famous "Ladies"...
Now, those were just some quick highlights from our trip. This posting would be way too long to detail EVERYTHING we saw and did. However, here are some things that I noticed while we were there and walking around.

1) The homeless don't lie: While walking the streets of SF, you will find that there are many homeless people asking for money. However, you should take note of their signs that request money. "No need to lie, it's for weed" or "No need to lie, its for beer".

2) Seafood smells make me nauseous: We stayed at Fisherman's Wharf and walked near the water quite a bit. There are several seafood resturants in a row on the main drag there and oh, my golly... do they stink!! Ewwe.

3) Danielle Steele is really rich: So I mentioned previously that we saw the most expensive home in downtown SF. I really shouldn't say that I saw the home because there is a HUGEMONGOUS hedge on the property borders that block the home, but I was able to see the top of it. So, she purchased that home for a whopping $30 million and the tour guide told us that before the market crash, the home was valued at $60 million!

4) The homeless (and others) will do some interesting stuff to earn money: I saw a man sitting on a crate holding a large tree limb/bush in front of him. There were a few picture takers behind him. He was facing on coming walkers and every so often he would shove his limb out a little bit and say "BOO!" and scare the day lights out of the people coming by. It was quite entertaining. Maybe it was because he didn't scare me... the first time I saw him do it, I was on the side of the photographers and I knew what he was doing when I came back by. I beleive the girl in front of me just about fell off the curb. It was quite histerical.

5) The Golden Gate Bridge: Is painted yearly and it takes 365 days to paint. Just as the painters are finishing the last stroke at the end of the bridge they turn right back around and begin again. Can we say, "job security"? However, if you go to visit the bridge make sure you go at the right time of the year because if you don't, fog will cloud your view of the bridge even as you drive on it.

So, again, I had a marvelous time and will cherish the memories of this trip forever. Thank you Mom for planning such a trip and maybe, just maybe, we can do something like this again?!?! :)

Parade Goers

A local small town does a spring festival every year called the Blooming Festival. The town plans it for Mother's Day weekend every year. They also have a small parade on Saturday morning. Last year we attended the parade and it was Jackson's first parade. So, for this year, Mom instisted that we take another picture for a comparison shot. So... here it is. Jackson definitely seemed more involved this year, but next year... when he is walking... what a time it will be! :) Looking forward to it!

Just go away!

Conversation with my mom yesterday:

Mom: You have been home for 3 days and you still haven't blogged.
Me: I know.
(silent pause for thoughts)
Me: I have blogger's block.

Is there really such a thing as blogger's block? I have so MANY things that I could be writing about and I really did pull up the compose screen in blogger several times this week and just could not muster up any way to get started. Nothing. I was lying awake in bed Tuesday night and I was thinking about how I was going to start blogging about my recent trip. I had some good, ehem (excuse me, frog in my throat), great ideas. Did I get up to write them down? Nope. Did I turn my computer on to go ahead and type them up? Obviously not. Did I remember those thoughts the next morning? HA HA! Are you kidding? So, since those thoughts were apparently not as "grand" as I thought... I have been sitting here over the past few days wondering how in the world I should get back to my blogging. I have heard some say, "Just say what you feel." Well, I am sorry guys, but I am not so sure that you would want me to do that all the time! :) And if anyone knows me in the slightest bit, you should know that I have a slight bit of perfectionism in me (please take note to the smaller font in the last sentence, it was done on purpose). So, when a posting doesn't go just as planned, the whole thing just gets knixed (Is that the proper spelling?!?!).

So, are you thinking that I am trying to tell my mom something? Hence the title of this posting and our noted conversation? Hmmm... maybe? :)

Not hardly.

So, you are wondering why I have been home all week? Well, see I have really gotten into all of these blogs lately that are writen by SAHM's (excuse the jargon, that would be "stay at home moms"). Apparently, they are the only moms that have time to sit down and maintain a blog. So, I decided that it was my turn to join that group. They seem to have so much fun! One of them even blogged about being bored this week -- yes, that's right -- B-O-R-E-D!

Oh, hmm... If only that were true. Really, I have been terribly sick this week. But, before I proceed with that, I want to note that I truly think it is a blessing if you are able to be a SAHM. In a lot of ways, I desire that for my family, but at this point in time, that just is not feasible. Oh, and the blogger stating she was bored, it was followed up in her posting that being a SAHM can sometimes seem like you are in a constant rut... doing the same things every day and she was blogging about finding new things to do with her children and other SAHMs/friends. If you are interested in her blog, let me know and I will send you a link to her page. I really do not look down upon moms who are able to stay home, I just get a little frustrated sometimes -- wishing I had more time in my day to spend with my family. I never truly knew that desire until after I had Jackson.

Okay, off the formalities... and on to my ailments. Strep throat and pink eye. Does that sum it up? Two VERY contagious ailments and for me very painful ailments. Last night, it felt as though I had a tiny peice of glass in my upper eyelid that I could not get out. I ended up crying myself to sleep because I just wanted to be better. For the majority of this week, Jackson has been at my mom's. I miss him so much! He did stay here last night because we both think he sleeps better at home. Don't you? I do! We had so much fun, eating dinner together and him enjoying his bath. He has really started to play in the bathtub. Splashing around and throwing water everywhere. :)

Anyway, I was supposed to return to work on Tuesday after my trip (we'll get to that later). But I received the okay to stay out one more day because we were getting in so late Monday and I wanted to spend the day with Wayne, Jackson and Bo. I am glad that I did stay out the additional day. My throat started hurting worse and the pink eye (which started last Friday) was getting worse. So, to the doctor I went on Wednesday. She kept me out of work for Wednesday and Thursday. I knew that I had to take Jackson today for his 15 month appointment, so to make sure I made up time for that (especially since I had been out), I went in at 6 am this morning. I was able to go through my emails and get a few things done before the managers started coming in around 7:30. They all took one good look at me and told me that I needed to go back home. I am really not sure if I am still contagious or not, but they didn't want to take the chance. Then, I started to cry again. My eyes are really taking a beating, by the way. Crying this time out of frustration. I can do so much more at work than I can do here sitting on my couch. I really don't have the extra "sick time" to be out of work. What I am going to do if Jackson get sick later in the year. Wayne keeps telling me that they will probably work with me, and I know that is probably true, but I know also that there are rules and I cannot be an "exception" to those rules when it comes to leave time. So, I painfully made my way out and drove back home and napped for about 2 hours. I guess I needed it. I didn't get good rest last night. But, I want it all to "just go away"! As soon as possible. Jackson and I both ended up sick last Mother's day and on my birthday and I really don't want either of us to be this year.

Well, now that my eyes are burning and my head is starting to hurt, I better quit looking at this screen for a bit. I WILL be back to post about my trip. Stay tuned!

Flashback Friday

exactly one year ago today... he just learned how to smile (3 mos.)

You thought you were going to get pictures…

I had every intention of updating again last night because I really have a lot on my brain these days. I knew that I was not going to post pictures but I also knew that I had an explanation for you about why. However, my internet decided to quit working, so I guess that was my queue to get off the computer. Oh, and let me just fore-warn you, this is a long posting. I was really surprised that Blogger let me post such a long entry.

I am struggling with posting all of what I am about to say. I am also finding that I am saying that quite often lately. I am not sure if it is because I shouldn’t post it or more so, I am just scared to. Hmm. So, I am just going to quit being scared and just do it. I will know in a day, week, or even month, if I shouldn’t have posted and I will know not to do it again.

All of my thoughts that are floating in my brain right now were re-kindled this weekend when my husband and I had a rather large … shall I say “discussion”? Yeah, I guess that is the nicest way of putting it. Just to give you some background information, and to make a long story short, I absolutely hate to clean my house and I am very lazy when it comes to that. Call me crazy or anything else you want, but that is just me. However, Wayne despises this trait of mine. He is very OCD about everything. Every item in our house needs its own special place. Because we are on opposite ends of the spectrum, it sometimes does get heated when it comes to cleaning our house. So, you can just imagine what happens when it goes a week or so when I haven’t “helped” around the house. Do I know that I have a problem? Yes! Do I want to fix it? Yes, until I get home and have to fix it. I really hope that I am not the only one out there like this. Well, I hope my mom and I are not the only ones out there like this. :) (Love you, Mom!)

Well, during our “discussion” this weekend, I was told that I was an awesome mother to Jackson but was a “not-so-great helpmeet” to Wayne. I am aware of this. So, everything he told me was NOT news to me. Ever since Jackson was born, I have struggled with balancing my time. It is not easy being a mom that works outside of the home full time. I want so bad to spend more time with Jackson and Wayne as well, but there never seems to be enough time in the day. When I get home, I just want to spend as much time as I can with Jackson and my family, in general -- I don’t want to clean. However, I don’t want to do it on the weekends either… and know that is where my laziness kicks in. I have also faced the fact that my computer time has been consuming my evenings as well (after Jackson goes to bed). If it is not Facebook, it is my blog or reading other blogs. In the process of updating my blog, it takes time to think and write as well as edit pictures. I am also a perfectionist when it comes to all things creative in my life, so editing pictures never takes less than 30 minutes to an hour.

So, now, I am finally getting to the point of why I don’t have pictures for you in this posting… I have made a decision to back off of my computer usage. I can tell you that I have only opened my Facebook account twice in the last 4 days… Please know that is a serious accomplishment for me. I know that all of you LOVE my blog and would hate to see me leave it, but I have to find different priorities. I am not telling you that I am going to quit. I don’t want to quit. In some ways, I do feel this is an outlet for me and my thoughts. I also love to update you all with how Jackson is growing and what he is doing “today”. However, it may turn into a weekly blog. I know there are some times it ends up being longer than a week for postings… but I promise to not leave you forever. I just need to figure out a schedule that I can work with that allows me to balance everything in my life. Is that possible? We’ll see…

Well, I have a whole nother (wow, that is not proper English!) story/entry to give you. And I was going to try and do them together, but this has really been long enough already! So, maybe tomorrow…