Week 17 "Smiles" photo challenge

We take pictures to remember. It may be a place, an event, a time in our lives or a person that we never want to forget. This weeks iheartfaces photo challenge hasn't left me very smiley. In fact I am in tears as I write this. My papa has always been one of the most important people in my life. He lost his battle with cancer last year. He was the happiest man I have ever met. He ALWAYS had a smile on his face. That's what I want to forever remember.....His smile. He left such a legacy. This man truly loved God and anyone who ever met him knew it. You see, some smile because they hear something funny. Some smile just to say hi. When my papa smiled there was more to it than that. There was something... no not something, someone behind his smile. He was filled with joy because he was filled with Christ. I honestly don't believe that I would be who I am without the investment that he made into my life. I loved him and admired him so much that I named my son after him. This picture is a picture that I will frame and give to my little boy and one day tell him of where he got his name. And then I will tell him all about the man behind that name. I realize that this picture isn't a picture that you'd see in a gallery and it's not edited so much that it looks like art. I realize that there are papers in the background and that there are wrinkles on his face, but I am so thankful that I have this picture to remember him....and his smile.


Head on over to iheartfaces and see all the other great smiles.

Lessons from the apartment complex

When my husband was offered a job in another state we knew that we would want to wait to find a house. So, we looked online for apartments.  We went ahead and put a deposit down on an apartment that we had never even seen. When we arrived, I was delighted that the apartments were new and that we would be moving into a unit that had never been lived in.  Apartment living is definitely not like being in a house. It is MUCH smaller. You can hear the neighbor every time they slam their front door. And the biggest outdoor play area my kids have is a small patio. Still we are getting used to this whole apartment thing. I just wanted to share a few things that I've learned from living in an apartment in the few short months that we've been here.

#1   You can call maintenance to hook up your dryer vent even if you're not a single mom.

#2   It does not mean that you are a bad wife or mother when the maintenance guy walks in and looks surprised to see how messy your place is.

#3   You can break just about anything and maintenance will fix it.

#4   You may gain weight because you feel the need to eat lunch with your husband three times a week just to get out of the small space that you now call home.

#5    When you are on the bottom floor and you have tenants above you, it will often sound as though they may actually fall through their floor right into your living room.

#6    One room can serve many purposes. Workout room, dining room, school room and living room.

#7    Just because the fire alarm goes off, it does not mean that you must run out of the building with your children because the whole building is on fire. It could mean that you turned on the wrong burner on the stove and the burner had a plastic spoon on it.

 #8   Your outside cat should not actually remain an outside cat in an apartment complex. Especially if he has a tendency to bring dead things to your door.

#9    You should never take your children with you to meet the new neighbor. You never know. You may have to explain some heavy topics to your kids when your neighbor introduces you to her girlfriend and goes on to tell you of how they want to have a baby.

#10   It may not be a good idea to let your kids play at the apartment complex park. Your kids could possibly look at the building next door to see the stripper on the third floor in her panties. True story.

I ain't gonna paint no more

Reading to my kids is one of my favorite things to do.  We try to get to the library pretty often. We got some really great books this week. Amelia Bedelia, Fancy Nancy, Some Swell Pup, and many more. We just happened to get I Ain't Gonna Paint No More by Karen Beaumont. I originally picked it up because the kid in this book reminded me of the kid in I Wanna Iguana and I love that book. This book is SO cute! It's about a little boy that feels like he just has to paint. The problem is that he doesn't want to paint on paper. He wants to paint his body.

 My kids have been running around saying " I ain't gonna paint no more no more, I ain't gonna paint no more." I love to hear their sweet little giggles as this little boy paints his whole body.  If you've never read this to your little ones, you need to. This will definitely be one that we have to buy.

Week 16 Photo "Collages"

So this weeks photo challenge at iheartfaces was to make a collage. I didn't have a ton of time to get this together, but here goes.



Head on over to iheartfaces to see all over the other great collages.

One Reason I love Spring, which by the way feels an awful lot like summer

I love Spring. I hate the pollen that comes with Spring but I love all of the fresh fruits and veggies. This weekend we went to the Farmer's Market. It cracks me up because the local produce isn't ready yet so the vendors are selling stuff imported from Mexico. It still looks so yummy and the prices are so good that you end up getting 10 tomatoes when you know you'll probably only eat 2. Maybe it's time to look into "How to make homemade ketchup". We weren't able to stay long and I didn't buy anything this time around but I did take some pictures that'll make you want to go out and buy some fresh fruits and veggies.

Fix It Friday #50

Don't you get so frustrated when you have a beautiful subject, beautiful background and you get home and have a perfect shot yet perfectly underexposed. The folks at iheartfaces have one such picture for fix it Friday. This is the before

and this is the after


I opened the file up in Adobe PS Lightroom 3 Beta 2. To edit this photo I simply upped the exposure and contrast. I'm sure there's a way in Lightroom to clone but I'm new to the program and opened it up in PS Elements to correct blemishes. I then sharpened the picture, reduced the noise and then converted it into black and white.

Head on over to to see how others fixed this photo.

Non-toxic home care

So most of you that know me, know that I only clean with vinegar. I'm a freak about chemicals, preservatives, food additives, etc. Most people think that to have a clean home that it has to smell like artificial airspray. This just isn't so.  I recently found a really great website that has tons of recipes for non-toxic home care. Not only do these recipes protect you and your family from harmful chemicals but homemade cleaning products are much less expensive. To make a quick all purpose cleaner just mix 1/4c. vinegar with 32 ounces of purified water. Add a couple of drops of your favorite essential oil and voila.