Monday, July 25, 2011

At last... Beach pictures.


Way back in June, we went to Ocean City for the beginning of our summer festivities. Ryan and Leilani and I went down on a Sunday, and were joined on Tuesday by Ryan's cousins and their children. We had a blast.

 

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Mike and Becca's Wedding

On the 26th of June, two good friends of ours got married! It was such a fun day, Ryan and Leilani and I all got to participate in the wedding. Ryan and I were in the wedding party and Leilani was the cutest flower girl ever. She wore a dress that one of my little flower girls wore at my wedding, two years ago!

Leilani stayed with my dad in the morning while Ryan and I came early to help set up. She was such a trooper and did fantastic without me all day long. It was quite nerve wracking. She is so much more grown up than I give her credit for.





 It was such a bright and sunny day. Warm, but just perfect!


My mom helped her walk down the long part, but once they got to the seats, Leilani walked down with the ring bearer all by herself! I could not see most of it, but all the "Awwws" from everyone let me know she was doing terrific. I was so proud of my little flower!

 
She went straight to Dada!  And then she got to hang out with Grammy and Grandpa for the rest of the ceremony. Big girl! 
 

MR. and MRS. GRAVES! 


 

I was quick to get out of my heels right after dinner, and Leilani was happy to be comfy too! Mike and Becca are avid swing dancers, so the reception was all about big band music, and dancing the night away! Twas a lovely day, and it was such a delight to get to celebrate with our friends on their big day. 

(Following three pics by Aron Crews)

Praying right before the big moment!


Congratulations Mike and Becca!



Monday, July 18, 2011

Laugh

Today over at Recipe for Crazy is another CrazyJoy photo challenge! This week's word is Laugh, and I knew just the photo to share.


This is one of my very favorite photos of Leilani from our June beach trip last year. She could not get enough of the warm summer breeze and just had to squeal about it! Link up and join the fun below:


recipe for crazy


(I have so many fun photos to post from our vacations the past two months, but they will have to wait as they live over at my mom's till we can resolve our computer issues.)

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Dear Squirrels,

You are dispicable rodents of great mischief, and I no longer harbor fondness for you in my heart. I used to say that if I was one day forced to become an animal, I would be a squirrel. You were a pleasure to watch as you innocently scampered this way and that, and I greatly enjoyed your fluffy cheerfulness. I now know that you are dastardly creatures of destruction and ruin. How did I discover the truth? Let me tell you. 

My daughter likes birds. So we got her a bird feeder. Did birds frequent this feeder? No. You did. Despite all my best efforts, your aerobatics gave you the victory and the bird seed. I moved this feeder to another location, sure that it was at last safe from your thievery. 2 hours later, I came home to this:


The glass was shattered, the wooden roof fractured, and the seed scattered. In defeat, I left the destroyed feeder for you and your chipmunk (your quieter, and far less annoying cousins) to clean up. I then nievely hung another feeder, this time, one that was "squirrel proof." The next day you had done this:


A pot that I had on a shelf near by had served as your launching point. Down it went as you flew towards your next target, and my porch had scattered dirt and broken pot to accompany the broken feeder. 


Mirroring you that morning, was Leilani. She was quite interested in your antics, and desired to eat her breakfast in a similar fashion. You are a bad example.

I noticed, however, that you had not managed to get in to my new feeder. VICTORY! I knew I had won. Oh how wrong I was. I caught you in the act by lunchtime.


You learned how to work the latched cover. You fiend.

My porch no longer was the tranquil, happy place on which to spot feathered singers. It was battle scared, rodent infested, and devoid of those lovely little musicians I had so hoped to attract. I swept the porch, removed the feeders, and retreated in defeat.

Squirrels, you are malicious little buggers and I wish you would leave my porch alone.

Sincerly,

Your former fan.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Excuses Excuses.

I have an excuse for my long slacking inability to blog. I am forever lamenting my various and sundry computer/camera issues, but about a month or so ago, they got worse.

Long story short, two of our 3 old laptops finally bit the dust and my newish one was the only one that worked. I go to up the road to my mom's every day to visit the younger siblings and let Leilani play, and one day, I decided to bring my laptop.

My arms were unusually full, and because I am awesome, I was determined as always to bring everything in one trip. Loaded the car, buckled in the baby and took off. It was a nice day. Breezy, sunny and warm. Got half way to my mom's (about 5 minutes down the road) and heard a weird scraping on the roof of my car, but it was just a momentary thing and I forgot about it. Then about 30 seconds later I saw in my rear-view mirror, a black thing flying through the air. In a sickening 5 seconds I went from, "Oh that's weird, wonder what that is," to "Oh dear goodness, I LEFT THE LAPTOP ON THE ROOF OF THE CAR." I managed to turn around in about a minute and get back to where it was laying, just in time to watch a landscaping truck run over it. I felt like I had been slapped in the face with my stupid absent mindedness. I gathered up the battery and the smooshed box and got in back in the car. And cried. Yep. A full out soppy mess of "oh my gosh I just ruined our lives, Ryan is going to be so upset with me, I have just added stress to my already stressed hubby and omghowcanwesurvivewithouttheinternet?"

My dad discovered that the hard drive was salvageable, my mom loaned me the siblings' homework laptop and Ryan was amazingly calm and simply said "oh dear" when I texted him about it, and "It is just a computer" when he got home. Traumatic day, amazing people.

Then vacations happened, and now that I am home for the rest of the summer with a loaner laptop and downloaded pictures, I should be fine right? Yeah. Yesterday, I accidentally downloaded spyware and the laptop is riddled with disease.

Tip: Windows 7 Fix is NOT a program already on your computer, it is a virus. When it asks you if you are ready to do a checkup on your hard drive, do not say yes.

One day all these issues will be in the past and we will chuckle over my terrifically intelligent blunders, but until then, blogging will be sparse, social networking with happen randomly and my life will shudder to a halting stop suddenly gain so much free time.