friends

My parents had a little party to go to before the baseball game so I hung out at their house with their kitty.  He's my buddy when I visit but when he stays with us for a week while they are in Colorado, he's terrified.  :]  He could not decide whether he wanted to be in or out so I finally made him stay out with me while I fed the blue jay that was staring me down for peanuts.  Apparently this bird is used to my Sammy boy because he could have cared less that he was laying only a few feet away from his peanuts !  I miss throwing peanuts out on the back deck for the blue jays and watching them pick up each shell and shake it to determine which was the heaviest, a.k.a. best one to take.  We used to have to scare off the squirrels but now that they are pretty much extinct up there, it's kind of sad that they are no longer around.

gooooo yankees !!!!

My parents and I went to an Angels vs. Yankees game on Memorial Day and had a great time !  I can hardly wait 'til next summer when Brett will (hopefully) be mature enough to be able to sit for extended periods of time at a baseball game with all of us.  I can picture taking him this summer and chasing him through the stands and him somehow ending up on the field.  Naked.  What can I say.... He doesn't waste a second of life by sitting and relaxing, and he prefers to do things naked.  :]

While it was a very exciting game right off the bat (literally) with the Yanks scoring 3 runs immediately off of the Angels injured pitcher, they ended up losing 8-9 in the end--bummer !!!!  We also got to watch about 10 minutes of beautiful fireworks following the game.  I wanted to go to the Wednesday game as well but didn't have anyone to go with.  Of course, they won that game !  Sigh....  Next year I will go to all three by myself if I have to.  :D


huuuuuuuuuuuge flag that i couldn't even get all in one shot

jets and fireworks during the national anthem

warm up time

they sure do wear those uniforms well ;]

i *think* that's joe girardi, the manager

helloooo a-rod ! ;]

"dream weaver" starting the game

now trying to walk off the pulled muscle in his back

a-rod up to bat and jeter on base

good one of jeter :]

my boys working hard !

pretty fireworks

parents and me :]

and finally the moon when we got home :]

solar eclipse

I had no idea how to take pictures of the solar eclipse we had on Sunday because the sun was so darn bright but I wanted to try.  Bud found his welding hood in the garage and we were able to look at the eclipse with it so I decided to try and take pictures through it.  They have a green tint from the welding hood but I was just happy to be able to get some pictures through it.  I also took a few of just the sun, hopefully not damaging my lens or camera, and they have a reflection of the eclipse that I thought turned out pretty cool.

A few nights later, Venus was out right by the moon and the night seemed very peaceful.  I tried a no flash picture and ended up with this cool effect (last picture).

grab your kleenex and your baby....

I found this video and I wasn't sure that I wanted to watch it because I just don't like watching or hearing about sad things, especially child related.  I decided to go ahead and watch it and I'm glad I did.  This mother is incredibly strong and I don't know that I could have been as courageous as she is if I were in her situation.  It's a great reminder for Mother's Day that all the days when Brett frustrates me and makes me crazy, that things could be so much worse.  I have a happy, healthy little boy who loves us unconditionally--for now, let's wait 'til the teenage years and see that change--and I need to treasure every single moment because life is too short to be upset that he put handfuls of dirt in the dog water....for the third time that day.  Or that he squished the whole bundle of bananas trying to get one free.  Even when he cracks a DVD trying to get it out of the case to put in and watch, we get so frustrated because he knows not to touch them.  But really, its just a DVD and its replaceable.  He isn't. 


A Mother's Inspiring Video 

Happy Mother's Day !!!!!

happy third birthday, brett !

Brett turned three on 4/28 and we had a Toy Story 3 themed party with just family and a few close friends.  I managed to forget to take a picture of all the yummy food that we had but it was a three foot long sub sandwich from Stater Bro's with half ham and half turkey, potato salad, dips and chips, ambrosia salad (yummm) and other snacky goodies, followed by green alien cupcakes that my sister-in-law made.  Everyone arrived before Brett had woken up from his nap, which is the way we planned it, and he was very excited to walk downstairs and find everyone here--minus my dad who was at home with an awful head cold and cough.  :[  Bud and I bought him the three pack collection of all three Toy Story movies so we can finally clear up some space on our DVR and he can watch them upstairs in our bedroom now.  I also found him a cool Tonka trash truck on amazon.com because he is obsessed with trash trucks a.k.a. che-trucks !  :]   

It was so hot that day that I ended up changing out of the cute dress I started in and my curly hair sort of melted to a mess.  :-/  Brett's Toy Story iron on for his shirt didn't turn out very well and his Buzz Light year balloon popped about 10 minutes into the party when it got sucked into a ceiling fan, but all in all, it was a great party.

hello, super moon

Saturday night there was a super moon out and I had to try and get some good shots.  I have a very nice camera but have yet to actually look through the manual for directions on how to use all the settings after two and a half years of owning it.  Normally, I just get a round bright circle when I attempt to take a picture of the moon so I googled "how to take a picture of the moon" and found a website with some helpful tips.  I couldn't figure out how to change the shutter speed but did manage to change the other settings it suggested--problem is, I have to change them back !  I thought it would reset when I shut off the camera....  nope.  Anyway, I am pretty proud of the pictures I got of the moon before sunset and after !  I didn't change any settings until the night shot so I wonder how much better the sunset shot could have been.  Also, a tripod was a must for the night shot so I was very excited to find the one we rarely used with our camcorder and my camera fit perfectly on it !

Look at all those craters on our beautiful moon !!!  I need to figure out how to zoom in on a photo and save it zoomed in.  It looks so awesome zoomed in on my camera screen and on the computer, especially.  :]  I hope to have an even better lense some day so I can get even closer !