BSM - Fluff

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A Tale of Two Anniversary's

There's a couple of anniversary's happening lately in my life. One of them caught me completely by surprise, while the other is the reason I am here.

The first anniversary is my parents. 10-10-10 is my parents 39th wedding anniversary. I am so happy and proud to have them in my life and in Ella and Olivia's life. We built the addition on our house just over a year ago for them to move in, and it could not have worked out better. I love how much we are able to share and be there to help each other out when needed. Keith and my Dad play games online together many nights. We often used to joke about my Dad being upstairs while Keith is downstairs and they are fighting each other in a game. At the time we didnt know it would really happen. :0) My mom is retired so she is home all day, as are the girls and I. We often go out to lunch and make those 5 weekly trips to Target (Its an addiction, I swear)! Ella just adores them and when Olivia gets a little older, she'll be right on Ella's heels crawling up those stairs to see her Amoo and Eppay every day too. We are all so glad to have them here, and wish them a wonderful anniversary.


On the same note....I work from home for my company and my boss asked me if I could come into the office the other day to have a meeting. He told me it was about one of my duties that is probably my least favorite thing to do in my job. So whatever, thats fine. I was going in anyways to have lunch with my friend Stacy. I asked my mom to watch the girls and I was on my way in.

All was pretty normal. I get along with my boss really well so the normal joking around ensues. Also, Stacy was there working and waiting for me to get done with my meeting to go have lunch. I said hi to a few people along the way to the conference room and my boss and I took a seat while waiting for one more person to join the meeting.

Then the door opened and there wasnt just one more person walking in, there was about 7 or 8 people walking in. In the span of about 1/10th of a second as I saw all the people standing there, my mind went crazy and stupid all at the same time. Is it my birthday? No, its not my birthday....Was I getting fired and this was a going away party? No, thats not reasonable. Crap! There's the president of the company....but wait, there's Stacy too....What the heck is going on?!


Come to find out, they were surprising me with a gift for being with the company for 10 years. I was blown away. Rendered speechless. I absolutely thought I was in there to have a meeting. They presented me with a plaque and a fantastic gift. They handed me a bag, which itself was a new camera bag. Inside the bag was 3 lenses. I KNOW!! I am still freaking out when I think about it. They got me a Nikkor 70-300mm zoom lens, a fisheye and (brace yourself...) a 650-1300mm lens. A total paparazzi lens! Along with the bag and lenses were a set of 3 filters, lens cleaner and a lens cap keeper.

I must mention that about a week or so before, my friend Stacy told me that her aunt had a camera store that she had closed and she had a bunch of lenses that she thought she could get for really cheap. She wanted to know which lenses I was interested in as a combination present for my birthday and Christmas. I found it a little odd, as she had never told me before that she had a family member with a camera store....since I am into photography and all. But never the less, I gave her a list of a few lenses I would like, thinking that maybe if they were at a really good price, I would buy some for myself too. This was all a lie to get information from me. I was played the fool! They made a sign on the computer saying, "Stacy's Aunt's Camera Shop Closing Sale One Day Only 10/5/10." There was no aunt and there was no camera shop!


As they presented me with my gift, they pulled out 3 large pieces of paper and layed them on the table. Stacy and my boss had gone onto my blog and put together a few collages of my photography to show everyone. I think that was what got me the most. The time that they took to put them together and the thoughtfulness that went into it blew me away. In that surreal moment, it was as though I was suddenly having my first exhibit! LOL. All kidding aside, it was a fantastic surprise and I could not have been more thankful.

I havent even tried out any of the lenses yet, but as you can see from the pictures accompanying the post, I have been loving the weather and colors around here. Keith and I are going to take a nature walk tomorrow with the girls and I hope to get some good pictures. It is supposed to be close to 80 degrees tomorrow!

WW - Nature Around Me

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Oh, The Tangled Webs We Weave

BSM - Random Shot

Good Morning Grumpy! I get such a kick out of how his eyes portray a grumpy old toad like you would see in a cartoon. I am just waiting to hear him say, "Ribbit".



For more Best Shot Monday images, head over to Tracey's.

Team Up Thursday - Week 14

This week, Christina and I are doing Simplicity. The crisp shot of the dandelion Christina captured is beautiful...and simple. As is the thought provoking quote she added to it. The little red balls (or some sort of eggs?) on the leaf that I shot really stuck out at me for some reason. They lay there as if strategically placed....but are just simply there.



For more "Team-Up Thursday" diptych's, head over to Megan's

The Curves of Nature

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Team Up Thursday - Week 13

Since last week, I chose the theme of down low, Christina chose this weeks theme of looking up. For some reason, I had a hard time with this one. Nothing tickled my fancy....in so many words. But after several days of good rain, we are now going into full bloom here in Minnesota. So the only thing to capture was the glorious sun shining down on the new flowers.

Christina chose trees this week too, yet the warm yellow glow of her shot while laying in a hammock gives the picture a completely serene feeling. I love how nothing is quite focused on except for the hammocks metal bar leading you UP into dreamland!

We both captured a little sunlight and a little bit of nature, but to me, there is quite a contrast between the two shots.

*I should note that my original picture orientation should be horizontal. I apparently had a hard time matching it with Christina's vertical shot. The original shot is pictured correctly on Christina's blog.



For more "Team-Up Thursday" diptych's, head over to Megan's

WW - Loving Spring

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BSM - Ready To Fly

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WW - Close To Nature

We went for a walk on Mother's Day and sat with these beautiful creatures.







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Here Little Birdie!

So in continuing our day of nature (from previous post).....shortly after we had the butterfly incident Ella and I came in to get ready to go visit my Mom. As I am backing out of the driveway, I look forward and see a little birdie hobbling across the driveway over to the grass. My first thought was that I just ran this thing over since he was hobbling. So I pulled the car back in the driveway and went for a look. He was just sitting on the edge of the driveway....totally not scared at all. What's your next move when you see nature staring at you in the face? Go for the camera!


So, instead of going back in through the garage and all the way up the stairs for my camera, I decided to go in the front door. And what do you know....There was another little birdie sitting on my front step! Could this get any better? They must have both just flown the coop.


I went for my camera, but ran back out to let Ella out of the car. She was of course yelling to me that she wanted to see the birdies too. I told her she couldn't scare them though. So happily snapping away I went on both of the birdies. Amazingly, when I got back from my Mom's 2 hours later, they were both in the same spot.


Keith came home around noon that day to set up the sprinkler, since it seems we haven't had rain in a dogs age. I had just put Ella down for her "quiet time" so I went outside with Keith. I told him about our interactions with the butterfly and the birdies, but the birdies were no where in sight. Then we noticed the one from the driveway just a couple of feet in on the grass. We were afraid that they couldn't fly, so Keith tried to pick him up and move him to a shady spot. It was about 90 degrees that day and in the sun....we thought he'd cook. As Keith got him on his finger, I screamed, "Let me go get my camera!" In I went to grab my "4th arm" (Ella is my 3rd) and came out to take pictures. Amazingly enough, he was still on his finger. A couple of minutes later, he flew off into the shady grass and snuggled behind some plants. We were glad he could fly at least, and he was nowhere to be found later on in the evening.


We never found the second birdie that was on the front step. I hope both of them got to a safe place. What a neat day.