Tuesday, March 31, 2009

186 When 6 Year-Olds Watch Twilight ...

and then borrow your red lip gloss! Katie could not resist adding drops of blood! Well, she has requested to watch Twilight three times! She does get bored, and tend to wander around during the movie but I think she has managed to see the whole thing through three viewings. There was nothing in it that would scare her, but when Chip and I watched the deleted and extended scenes, it was clear that they purposely steered it away from a more gory adaptation. Katie enjoyed the movie, and she has informed us that we will be purchasing it for the house. It has a long way to go before it can beat out The Mummy movies though!

And, what is a blog for if not to provide my unasked for opinion. I have read the first 3 books in the Twilight series and I am currently reading book 4. I have loved them! I admit that with a little embarrassment. They were written for teens. But each of these books has been such a fun and interesting read. I have a pretty vivid imagination. When I read, it is like watching a movie in my head. (when I was little I remember running into my brother's room to tell him that a Nancy Drew movie was on - before I remembered that I was just reading- I was VERY young) And this series has been no exception. I have seen each part of the book acted out in the minutest detail. And then I watched the movie. I think what threw me off the most is that I had already created a cast in my head. I had my own idea of what each person looked and sounded like. So, the actual cast fell short of my idealized version. And of course, there was a lot of trimming and condensing to make the first book into a two hour movie. It was a good movie. The acting was a bit stilted. I think the actors were just getting comfortable in their roles and the next movie will be better. Edward and Bella definitely have the sexual tension thing down. I can't wait to see more Jacob :) that being said ... this is the first time I have ever recommended that anyone see a movie before they read the books. I think it would actually be better to have the actors in your head so that you can read with them in the roles. Especially since these actors are bound to stick around for the whole series.

Although I am still trying to figure out how the guy that plays Jacob is going to grow a foot for the next movie ... yet another compromise!

Sunday, March 29, 2009

185 UrbanScrawl Part 1, with words and pictures

Alright, now it is time to write (I will be sprinkling in some repeat pictures from the last post to illustrate)...
My Shutter Buddy Candy (one of these days I will just say Candy and expect you to know who I am talking about, but I am still convinced no one reads this, so I have to keep explaining) is a photography student at the University of Memphis, and every once in a while she involves me in her assignments. This past week her assignment was "urban impact" or something along those lines. I'm not in the class, I don't really have to know. She wanted to go downtown and take some shots of graffiti, but she did NOT want to go downtown alone! That is where I come in :) Although we ended up not being in a very rough part of town. The first building that we took pictures of was right across the street from brand new townhomes. And I mean NICE townhomes. Also, there was a wreck at the end of the block, so convenient policemen as well. Yes Mom, you can calm down now.
Originally, we just hopped out to take some pictures of the side of the building. We came around the corner and saw all those doors leaning against the walls, and bricks and paint! Purely great! Only thing that would have made it better was if the sun had been on the proper side, but you can't have everything. So, we walked all along the side, taking pictures of the graffiti, laughing at the poor guy with the backwards J in TROJAN and the tag that said "Shoot Yourself". But we noticed more graffiti and a cool alcove across the street, so we had to investigate. It was definitely someone's "home", or at least it had been. At one point I stepped over a deflated air mattress, a pillow, and some lotion. It was such a huge jumble of trash that I could have been standing in the bedroom or the bathroom ... ok, so the bed was a giveaway, but my point is that it was NASTY! And then we went around the corner and received our VD Street training ... Then we headed back to the car, but I had to check out the OTHER side of the building, and I am so glad I did! It had two trees growing out of the brick! Actual trees! How long has a building stood empty for trees to grow? Complete with birds, no less. Yes, that lump toward the bottom of the trunk is a bird :)

And then there was the graffiti with a nicer message ...
and really this might be Memphis's new motto. There is a huge revitalizing effort going on in the downtown area. The slummy streets right off the river are getting a swift kick into a higher tax bracket. These old warehouses and factories are going to be lofts. I wish I had the money to invest! How cool would this building be made into loft spaces?? Anyone wanna loan me some money??


Even cooler, the trolley goes right in front of it! There is a little park to the right, and more new gorgeous homes! Seriously, who is ready to invest?

And just because I love ya, and everyone loves a trolley ... here is a bonus super played with shot. It is my current screensaver I love it so much!


And of course, that is still not all the pics from our little photocation in the ghetto (I had to say it, this is Elvis World!) Maybe I will throw up another slideshow. Really, I can't wait to get back downtown and take some more pictures. Sure wish we had a chaperone though :)

184 Urban Scrawl Part 1

There are many names that these pictures could have been placed under, but I chose the most fitting (plus I think I came up with it, at least as far as I know)!
Here is a slideshow of about half of the pictures we shot. I will write more later :)


Saturday, March 28, 2009

183 My New Baby!!




I bid on and won an Argus Super 75!! I am so insanely excited! I can't wait to experiment with it. I plan on using both TtV (through the viewfinder) and trying to find some 620 film! Of course, you will soon be inundated with plenty of samples! I just had to share my newest addition!

182 Unwrap A Smile

Over on Shutter Sisters today they asked "If today could speak to you, what would it be saying?" and so I thought I would share one of the pics from the mini-photocation through downtown Memphis. This was actually shot at a stop along the way. My Shutter Buddy saw it on the way up and we stopped on the way back home. It was outside a convenience store, in a pile of trash. There was an old broken couch, a lion pillow, and an end table that had been destroyed. It was a strange conglomeration of crap!

So, these are my words to you ...

Believe me, it is the nicest sentiment we found that day :)

181 This is the post where ...

I don't try to impress you with pictures. And make no mistake, I am usually trying :) But since I am just now back to Mississippi life posting, and we have been back in po'dunk for a week, I figured I would get us back to good. Wow, I am having a 90's reference moment (and yeah, I checked Matchbox 20 put out Back To Good in 1999). Guess that is what happens when you blog at 3 a.m. ... oh crap, there I go again. Maybe it is just a Matchbox 20 problem I am having. Which is odd, not because I don't like them, but because I never think of music in terms of who the song is by. I know the lyrics to just about every song I have ever heard, but I cannot tell you who sang them. Also what you get at 3 a.m. is a tangent ... I could ramble on for hours I am sure, but I do need to get some sleep.

Monday was rough! Katie had to go back to school, and of course she wanted me to have lunch with her. Poor girl, just got so used to having Mom around ... or she just keeps hoping that I will check her out of school if i go to lunch with her. Yeah, that is probably it. She survived her first day back at school, and Daddy had suggested a Girl's Night trip to Chick-fil-A. Katie just goes for the playground, but to anyone that lives in the Chick-fil-A region the food is the real pull! I grew up in Atlanta. I remember when Chick-fil-A was only at the mall and it was a special treat. Ohhhh, how we looked forward to it! I always take the bun off and inspect my chicken before I take a bite. No, not to make sure it is cooked thoroughly! You have to check for extra batter bits! The BEST batter EVER! So, for anyone with Chick-fil-A on the brain now, here are a few pics to drool over.




Remember, the secret is all in the pickles! Two pickles to be precise :)
Connor has discovered how to climb! Gone are the days when I can just let him wander in the backyard for a moment without constantly hovering behind him. Well, they are temporarily on hold. I stopped to pull a few weeds from around a plant struggling to grow and turned around to see him standing inside the climby thing (yeah, that is what I call it). This is the part where my Mom says "why isn't he wearing shoes?" And I *sigh* ... kids need to feel the grass under their feet and the mud squish between their toes! He is definitely all boy because he doesn't mind walking on the bog. We have had quite a bit of rain lately and the ground is saturated!
And here is the evidence that I did indeed pull weeds. This could also be used as an advertisement for a nail parlor ... the before obviously!
And yes, my cooking is so boring that Katie fell asleep at the table. No, she is not faking it. I left her there while I gave Connor a bath, and she had not moved when I was done. Poor exhausted little thing! She was having a hard time re-adjusting to regular hours. Who am I kidding? We all have had a hard time getting back on schedule. We kept Cheyenne for about an hour the other day, and she still is suspicious of Connor's motives. Who can blame her? It is hard to decide whether he is trying to hold her down and kiss her or take away her toys. At one point he just walked in circles around her while she was on the ride-on, and Chey just screamed at him. I guess it was making her nervous.
Mia and Katie were finally able to get together to play on Thursday. Mia brought down her "Pretty, Pretty Princess" game. It was too funny when Katie called it "Pretty Princess" and Mia felt the need to correct her. I was a little worried about them playing a game. Usually that will deteriorate quickly if only one of them knows how to play, but they did great! They are getting better at explaining and listening. And Chip mowed the weeds ... I mean, the grass. Our yard had reached the point where I was going to just start claiming that we had planted wildflowers, but Chip has promised that he is going to get it back under control. It may be the only way to break my addiction to dandelion photography. Yes, I have taken more dandelion pics. I am sure I will bust them out next time. Friday morning I was awoken with crying and screaming. For once it was not from Connor. Katie was sitting on her bathroom floor rubbing her eyes (turned out to be the problem, of course) and whimpering. Her little eye was red and starting to look a little swollen. We tried flushing it out with saline and we bundled her back into bed between us, hoping that if she went back to sleep it would stop hurting. No such luck, when we woke back up it looked even worse. By the time I called around trying to get an appointment with our eye doctor, it was lunchtime, so she had to wait even longer. We ended up taking her to her pediatrician. They gave her some numbing eye drops and dyed her eye orange so they could look at it under the blacklight. She had managed to scratch her cornea. Of course, it looks like I have been beating her ...
Her nose was running on the right side from the pain and pressure. I was a little shocked to find the dye coming out in her snot!! Yes, that is the real color of her snot. I was not being mean by taking her picture ... Katie wanted to see what her eye looked like, and snapping a picture was the easiest way. Katie will be fine. She used this injury to her advantage by guilting me into buying her more make-up at Walgreen's while we waited on her prescription. It was only fair since I was spending the same amount of money on buttpaste. I always forget how expensive diaper rash cream is, but who can complain when their babies butt is raw! It is the weirdest thing. Connor always gets a rash when we use Pampers Cruisers. I thought it might have been a fluke the last time. We used them once before and he got a rash, then we went back to the Pampers Baby Dry and it went away. I did not think there could have been that big of a difference between the two, but apparently there is. So, it is back to Baby Dry and buttpaste.
oops, there went the rambling again!
And we are back to good ...
well, except for posting pics of our photocation downtown and more pictures of weeds :)

Thursday, March 26, 2009

180 Spring Break, the Final Chapter

Friday and Saturday were strictly friends and family! Friday we met the Melton's for Chuck E. Cheese. You know I must have REALLY wanted to see them if I agreed to the Chuck! Katie and Kaylee had a BLAST! They spun and danced and played and played! This is also the first time that Katie has voluntarily approached the rat when he was walking around. It only took 6.5 years ... now if we can just get her to not freak out around frogs! Afterwards, we headed a bit further north to see the Bright's! My brother Geof and his family also made it up for a little mini reunion. Katie loves anytime she can play with her cousins. Ashlee's sister, Amy happened to be coming into town as well. Anslee and Katie hit it off immediately! They played Wii Bowling and giggled ... A LOT!

This is where Ashlee decides to make fun of Katie. My girl is a sassy little thing! Saturday we took a little trip to Kohl's with Grammy. While she was checking out I took Katie next door to PetSmart. Are these not the cutest little fish! The are called Pearlscale Goldfish and it said that they can grow to be 12 inches. I wonder if they look like basketballs at that point!?That night Grammy had a lot of little helpers for cupcake preparations. I just love how Katie has her arm around Claire to make sure she doesn't fall. And, of course the best part of cupcakes is DECORATION! Claire and Katie were very intent on making sure that the cupcakes were as beautiful as possible. Milly just wanted the sprinkles! I had to leave the family get together before I could force the cousins to take a group picture. I had plans to meet some of the Lady Blue Devils from back in the day! We had dinner at a place called Six Feet Under. It is supposed to be next to a cemetery, but we couldn't stop talking to look. WE LAUGHED AND LAUGHED AND LAUGHED! Oh, the hilarity that ensued! We gave our poor waiter hell, but I am sure he forgave us when he got his tips at the end of the night. I only took a few pics, and those turned out blurry, but here they are. I would share our conversations and our laughter, but this is a family blog :) I can't wait to go back to Atlanta and see my family and friends again!! I miss you all so much! Next time, hopefully I will be able to spend more time with everyone ... especially my Mom! It was nice to have Chip with us, but it really cut down on my Mommy-Daughter time. We usually sit around sipping coffee and talking, but we did not get a chance to do much of that this time. Next time Mom, I promise!

What is a trip home without some flower pics? These were the only daffodils that were blooming. Lamb's Ears! we adore these plants! So soft and sweet!
This picture reminds me of Willy Wonka and his edible daffodil cups! YUM! I wish they were made of sugar!
The Tulip Tree!
And of course I had to get a picture of the Camellias!
I just love all the plants that are still around from my grandparents! Everytime I see them I feel like Grandma and Grandaddy are right around the corner, and in a way, I guess they are!