photo scavenger hunt #2

During the month of June I participated in another photo scavenger hunt, sponsored by Kristi. I found this one more challenging than the last one for some reason, and I totally dropped the ball on a couple of these (check out #s 16 and 18 for example). Kristi has set up a separate blog for organizing her photo scavenger hunts. If you’d like to see the other participants’ entries, check them out here.

1. A View from Above (looking down)

2. A Macro Shot

3. Laughter (archives- May ‘09)

4. Relaxation

5. A Celebration (Father’s Day 2009)

6. A Sunset

7. Sun/Lens Flare

8.  A Bridge

9.  A Shadow

10.  A Garden

11.  A Park (Archives- April ‘09)

12.  A Street Scene (Grandma’s Half-Marathon runners take over London Rd. in Duluth, MN!)

13.  Signage

14.  A Summer Activity

15.  A Summer Treat

16.  Earth

17.  Air/ Wind

18.  Fire

19.  Water

20.  Something Vintage (pre-1980) [not sure this is technically pre-1980, but it's an A-Team van with Mr. T in the driver's seat- a toy from my childhood!]

21.  Something Made of Glass

22.  Something Made of Wood

23.  Something that Floats

24.  Something Railroad Related (Minneapolis Light Rail)

25.  Something Round

a berry, berry good time

(cheesy title brought to you by: FatJ)

Saturday we went strawberry picking at the Bauer Berry Farm. We had never been berry picking before, so we weren’t sure what to expect. All we knew is that we wanted a nice big load of yummy juicy berries. Each adult was assigned a row of strawberry plants, and you could pick as many berries as you liked. The berries were big and wonderful and red and so delicious. Ryan got into the picking, but he ate every berry he picked. All in all, we ended up with A TON of strawberries ($25 worth to be exact).

Then we got home and had to figure out what to do with ALL THESE BERRIES

Read all about what we did with all these strawberries here.

let’s talk cuteness, shall we

Today my SIL Katie returned the bassinet that she had borrowed when my little nephew Brady was born. {Actually the bassinet has held two babies since we used it for Ryan- little Luke used it too!} Anyway, today the bassinet was returned to our possession, and as with anything ‘new’, Ryan developed an instant obsession with the thing. He crawled right on in and laid down with his baba, and then he said “Brady come in too?!” So in Brady went, and here they are, two cuzzies in a bassinet. This is what it looks like when a 26-month-old and a 5-month-old cram into something meant for one 7-day-old:

I told Ry he was going to take his nap in here today, tee hee.

And a little flashback…this was he then, at 12 days old. {There is no way he was EVER this small, is there??}

wook at dese widdle widdle bebes!

Brady

Emily

Luke

Ry Guy  (OOOOPS!! Technically not a widdle widdle bebe, but still cute)

cat makes for a conundrum

This here is why my husband is one of the funniest people I know.

(Quite positive I’m the only person out there who will LaughOutLoud at this, but I had to share.)

new page

I’ve always thought it would be fun to do a Photo-A-Day/Project 365 type of thing. Thankfully I know myself well enough to know that however well-intentioned I was to actually take one picture every day of the year and post it online, something would inevitably get in the way of that happening, and I’d slack on it, and three months would pass without a new picture. But, I think I can successfully commit to three months (give or take) of a photo-a-day project, and what better time to actually have motivation to take a pic each and every day than in the summertime!!

So, a new page is up on the ‘ol bloggio here- Foto del Dia- Summer 2009. I needed to keep a little Spanish flair on the name of the page since I took down the Recuerdos de Espana page– I felt like I was disappointing many a latino who were legitimately googling in search of Spanish souvenirs, and then coming upon my FatJnonsenseblog. So I named it Foto del Dia- because anything in Spanish brings on the nostalgia- and not because I’m focusing on Latino photography or anything:) I’ll try to have some of the pictures be of something other than my kid, but we’ll see how that goes.

june 21

A quad-fecta of celebrations; that’s what today was. And I was involved in some major photog-slacking, so I didn’t even document everything I should have.

First of all, it was my mom’s 60th birthday. Nope, didn’t even take a shot of her celebrating or anything. Here she is in the background though, watching her two grandsons play by the lake. Happy birthday, mom!

Secondly, it was my parents’ 34th wedding anniversary. (Yup, they got married on my mom’s birthday). I talked about taking a picture of the two of them together, but we never did it. Happy anniversary, mom and dad!

Third, today was Father’s Day. Fathers and kiddos picture- check. Happy Father’s Day to my dad, my  brother, and my wonderful husband!

Last, the summer solstice!! The first ‘official’ day of summer! The longest day of the year!! I do love summer, so this is oh so worth celebrating. Here’s Ryan, enjoying some outdoor summer fun on a bright and hot and sunny day.

he be runnin’

Here’s a shout-out to FatJ for completing the Grandma’s/Gary Bjorklund Half Marathon in Duluth, MN on Saturday!! In a town known for it’s foggy, cool summer days, luck would have it that whenever FatJ runs this event (that would be ‘07 and ‘09), it ends up being unusually hot, sunny and muggy. Not exactly ideal running conditions.

We were watching from mile marker almost-7 (thanks Sarah and Todd!). Here he is, stopping to say hello and give a big hug to his little man. (Who, btw, was completely bored with the whole race spectator experience.) Dadarunning?? WhereDada is???? WHERE DADA GOING????

We had joked before the race that FatJ should give me a secret signal along the route if he was “about to die” from the exertion of it all. So there I was, at the almost-finish, after waiting what seemed like an eternity for him to run by, and I finally spot him. He runs by, grins his sh*t grin, and gives me the secret signal. Which was him pulling on his earlobe while giving me a funny look. Har har, ever the comedian. I’m proud to say that he finished the 13.1 miles!!! Here we are post-race…him groaning about more pictures, and me looking like a big worm is crawling across my forehead. (No worries, it’s just my hair doing something weird).

Congratulations to all the runners, especially this group of cool dudes

tft: commenting on ‘big name’ blogs

I’ve been wondering for a while now how many people out there actually comment on the ‘big name’ blogs?? I mean obvs a ton of people comment on them when you see like 300+ comments on just one big-namer’s post, but do any of you peeps who read my blog (and whose blogs I read) ever take a moment to comment on a big-name blog?

I don’t read a ton of them, but when I say big-name I’m meaning those such as Pioneer Woman, Dooce, Girl’s Gone Child, etc. etc. I’ve commented on a couple big-namers a couple times when trying to win a giveaway…but that’s about it. If you’ve ever left a general comment, have you ever received a response? Which big-time blogs do you read? And do you ever comment? [Did anyone congratulate Dooce on her new baby?]

CABOODLES!

Remember these crazy, plastic, hideously colored tackle-box like contraptions from the 80s?? [FESS UP- I KNOW YOU HAD ONE TOO!!]  Females of all ages used these to store makeup and toiletries and jewelry and  other what-not from the decade of mall bangs and jelly bracelets.

I owned two of them. And I will confess that both are still in my possession. One is in my closet in my old room at my parents’ house, holding what I believe are cassette tapes. The other- god only knows why- has been hiding out in the back of a messy bathroom cupboard, underneath and behind a bunch of other crap. Leave it to the boy to dig out history and dump it all over my bathroom floor.

Aren’t you just dying to know the contents??

a variety of nail polishes

a pack of bobby pins (I think these were left over from my wedding hairdo!) (circa 2000)

two scrunchies I bought in Mexico during a high school trip (circa 1993)

a hemp necklace (made by Jennie M., I believe! Am I right, Jen?) (circa no idea)

wart remover (?!?! EW. I did have a wart problem a long while back) (expiration date of 12/2002)

2 spools of thread (I believe these were left from something to do with my wedding, again circa 2000)

Renu effervescent enzymatic cleaner (expiration date of 2004)

Cetaphil moisturizing cream (not sure why I have this- I’ve never used it)

a barrette

The story of my Caboodle is this: I must have gotten it in junior high or early high school (which technically means this was an early 90s item for me, rather than an 80s item.) I have no idea what I used it for when it was ‘new’ and ‘current’ and ‘fashionable’ to utilize a Caboodle. I do remember bringing it to college with me in ‘95, but that was mainly for storage of crap that I wanted to haul along with me. I don’t remember using it ever in college either. Basically, I think I would just throw random crap into it as a sort of portable junk drawer, and I’d never take the time to toss anything away. I just kept moving it with me from place to place.

Here it is, in all its glory. I’ve returned it- lovingly- to its special place in the back of the bathroom cabinet.

Anyone else out there have any great Caboodles! stories?