12 on the 12th july 2010 edition.

- the minute to win it party was a success. i had a blast! upcoming post on it later....
- thinking the minute to win it post might take the place of my weekend in pictures for this weekend.
- didn't go to my mailbox for two days. that is so unlike me.
- have taken my lunch to work the last few days. just am not feeling the uber unhealthy lunches. but the pb and j that i'm taking makes me feel like a little kid!
- watched the entire world cup final game. i feel like i wasted a few hours of my life... such a boring game!
- am in love with my new bath and body works soap. i want to wash my hands time and time again just to smell it! it's tangerine someting.
- i think that cash cow might be more addicting than bejeweled blitz. i should have never downloaded that app!
- i want to see despicable me so bad.
- needs to figure out a day when we can go to the drive in!
- am so over lebron.
- finally used the off clip ons. they were used in combination with like 5 citronella candles so i'm not sure if they worked.
- am already thinking about ben's halloween costume!

weekend in pictures 7.3.10

'twas a wonderful weekend. wish we could do it all over again!

friday: fireworks at uncle john's. it's a yearly tradition. can't remember how many... but it's been quite a few!

the cousins. so cute. i LOVE ben's expression. wish i knew what the lil stinker was thinking!

my sweeties.

ben enjoyed chalk for the first time. you should have seen his shoes!!

mommy and ben watching fireworks. he was such a champ! only startled and cried a few times with the loud booms. so proud of him!

and compare this one from last year....

k. back to the present.

saturday.
lazy-ish day.

my dad came and helped us with our out of control garden.

ben likes scallions. he smelled like them all day long!

then it was a lazy afternoon. a few errands. some napping. and a visit to grandma and grandpa's pool.
ben wanted in as soon as we got there!

enjoying his new floaty toy.

then mommy and daddy enjoyed a late grilled dinner, campfire, liquor, and the neighbors fireworks!

i love fireworks. played around with my settings. sometimes i got too impatient and moved the camera before it was time.  yeah, i was too lazy to drag out the tripod. whatever. enjoy some of my favs. ;-)

and a reese's peanut butter cup smore. delicious. 

sunday:
beach!

ben didn't mind the dry sand. it was the wet stuff he didn't like. we would trick him and sit him right on the edge and then the water would come up and he would be upset for like 2 seconds and then he would go back to playing.
he also went out into the lake a few times with us. he just looked like a tree frog desperately clinging to us! ;-)

nick found some friends to play a pick up game with.  was too windy to play more than a few times and the sand was ridiculously hot.

thank you hella tamron zoom lens. wish it was a bit less hazy and the picture of chicago would have been better. oh well. next time!

 awww....

the fireworks set up. pretty freaking cool.

nick wants to take some home!

and a bit out of order... but ben did end up getting pretty dirty. it was serious!!

such a sweet face. sand and all. ;-)

 i already shared my favorite fireworks shots. here is one more.

monday.
another lazy day.

ben was super tired so he slept most of the day! nick and i managed to nab a babysitter and saw grown ups. which we loved and i mentioned in a previous post.
then we came home and grilled and watched some silent library.

was a perfect weekend. wish every weekend was like it. a perfect mix of go and no go!

i figured it out.

my issues with blogger. well, yes, nick did help.

apparently, i'm over my free storage on picasa... who knew?! ;-)
and i didn't even know i was using picassa. whatever. google trying to steal my $5. might have to investigate new blogs... or not share as many photos. hmmm....
oh and the other blogs will be coming down. so sad but i'm not scrapping as much so it can stay here and i don't need a reading blog now that there is goodreads!

have to wait a bit for my upgrade. hoping to have the weekend in pictures posted before this weekend!

two thumbs up.

for grown ups.

saw it yesterday and loved it. i love adam sandler. something about his goofy-ness. i have missed his movies.
and...  nick spit pop on me during it! so i'm thinking he gives it two thumbs up too. ;-)

and no pictures because blogger hates me.
can't upload since the two i did yesterday. hoping it cooperates soon, or my blog my be even lamer than usual for a while. ;-P

fourth of july.

is totally one of my most favoritest holidays. i think it is mostly because of the fireworks...
{my other favorite is halloween... how can you not love the wee ones all dressed up?!}
our weekend was wonderful. weekend update soon!

two of my favorites from yesterday at the beach. ;-)

a few quotes

not sure why... but i'm enjoying the quotes in my inbox quite a lot lately.
here are a few of my recent favorites, in no particular order. pardon the caps, i'm cutting and pasting! ;-)

- I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.  -John D. Rockefeller

~ Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are. -Chinese Proverb

~ Indecision may or may not be my problem. -Jimmy Buffett {this is totally nick!}

~ I am not a glutton - I am an explorer of food. -Erma Bombeck

~ A happy family is but an earlier heaven. -George Bernard Shaw

~ Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well. -Robert Louis Stevenson

~ Comparisons of one's lot with others' teaches us nothing and enfeebles the will.  -Thornton Wilder

~ Get up and dance, get up and smile, get up and drink to the days that are gone in the shortest while. -Simon Fowler.

~ If you wait to do everything until you're sure it's right, you'll probably never do much of anything. -Win Borden

~ In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson. -Tom Bodett

~ The secret of health for both and mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly. -Buddha

~ Human beings hardly ever learn from the experience of others. They learn; when they do, which isn't often, on their own, the hard way.  -Robert Heinlein

~ Let us be about setting high standards for life, love, creativity, and wisdom. If our expectations in these areas are low, we are not likely to experience wellness. Setting high standards makes every day
and every decade worth looking forward to.  -Greg Anderson

~ Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful.  -Sophia Loren

~ Other things may change us, but we start and end with family. -Anthony Brandt

~ Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we should dance. -Unknown

~ I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. -Anna Quindlen
~ Good manners sometimes means simply putting up with other people's bad manners. -H. Jackson Brown, Jr. {thinking i might need to frame this and put it up in my office at work.}

~ Stress is the trash of modern life - we all generate it but if you don't dispose of it properly, it will pile up and overtake your life. -Danzae Pace

volleyball.

i love it.
well, we love it.  okay, nick and i. ben just watches and says ball.
i can only hope that ben will enjoy it as much as we do when he's older.
i used to hate indoor. now i don't mind it so much. but i prefer sand. there's just something about the summer and having the sand between your toes. except that it ruins one's pedicures!

two weeks ago we played through the crazy downpours. i mean it was serious. i swear, i was pelted with mini hail. okay, i wasn't but it sure felt like it! and it was a blast. cold, muddy, wet, sandy {more so than usual} but oh so fun!

looking forward to our weekend getaway to st. louis in august. we've played in a volleyball tournament there pretty regularly before kids {about once a summer}. nick's bachelor party even took place in st. louis, so they could play. actually, that's the first time they participated in it! 

k.
enough babbling.

took this last week. the other picture i took can be seen in the photo hunt post!

so thankful that they put up the little orange netting in the background. nick and i have both gotten poison ivy this season. yeah, we're smart.

looking forward to playing on a different court today. didn't see any poison ivy when we checked it out this weekend! ;-)