Meeting Colleen

Alternately titled: The day I wanted to smack a complete stranger upside the head.

I drove into town with one simple thought trying to drown out all the others that were crashing around like pin-balls in my head.

"There has got to be a hippo around here somewhere."

It was a futile attempt to calm the butterflies in my stomach. I even managed to hit one of the potholes on our stretch of road, and I do know exactly when and where to swerve to avoid them all. It would have been a fine time for a flat tire. I'm about due for one. It's been a few weeks.

Not only was I about to meet one of my best friends from inside my computer in real life... if she was, in fact, not a psycho serial killer (or a man!) I planned to drag her and her crew back to my farm for the rest of the day.

It's a funny thing. Meeting someone that you already know so well, but haven't actually met before. Someone who can recognize your kids at a glance, and greet you by name with a big hug. It may surprise you, but neither of us was too mentally unstable, and our day turned out to be entirely wonderful.

Why does it take someone visiting from far away to finally get us to a local attraction? This is real excitement, check out my kids' faces.


{they weren't ready to socialize yet}

The Bean has been calling buffalo "A moo feet!" ever since.

One of us (ahem) encouraged our adult child to sit on some playground equipment next to a sign that said something like "small children only please". It was a photo opportunity, of course. But shortly after that, the unthinkable happened.



I saw a Dad chasing his kid with an obnoxiously large (fabulous) L-series Canon lens. I shot him a knowing smile, since he was obviously a kindred spirit. But a few minutes later, my jaw dropped.

The dude was using his camera's pop-up flash with that very (very!) expensive lens. I whispered my disbelief in Colleen's direction. She peeked around the corner and confirmed it. Flash flash flash. Wrong wrong wrong.

We spent the next two minutes trying to get Colleen's pop-up flash to activate. In automatic mode. In the same lighting. Just to see if we could.

We failed.

If we had crossed paths with the ignorant photographer again, I fear I may have:
a. asked him how he liked the shadow that flash and huge lens cast across his pictures (truly people, it does)
b. mentioned that the thing he had attached to the middle of his lens was actually not a convenient handle, but a tripod mount
c. smacked him upside the head
d. wondered aloud what he was trying to compensate for
e. any combination of the above

Unfortunately Fortunately, we didn't see him again, so I had to be content with dramatically complaining about the shame of it all. Which I did. With flailing arms. At regular intervals throughout the rest of the day. It didn't make me feel any better, but I never gave up trying.

I'm over it now, because I've decided it must have been his wife's camera. Groan about it, dear reader, but it's the only scenario that makes any sense.

Anyway, after admitting that I had no knowledge of local hippos, we headed out for lunch. Thankfully I documented it with this poor excuse of a photo, because we got so busy chatting and laughing that we didn't take another of ourselves (together) the rest of the day.


{maybe I should have used my pop-up flash with my big lens}

Oh, wait. I don't have a pop-up flash.

They were adventurous enough to follow us out to the middle of nowhere, and we spent the afternoon laughing, bemoaning the fact that we live so far away from each other, watching our kids play with kittens and climb the woodpile and navigate the popcorn maze. A chick even pooped on one of Colleen's girls.

I had planned a simple meal at home, but it never crossed my mind what a gift that would be. Colleen and her crew had been on the road for nearly two weeks. After she said "Thank you" something like ten times, I finally understood what she meant.

After dinner we took our cameras out. Colleen has been dreaming of an upgrade, so I handed over my big camera. She has the skills to use it well. Except...



Except I may have forgotten that I have so many custom functions set on that thing, it might as well have been something off a NASA space shuttle. Silly, silly me.

Colleen, it was so fun having you all here. Saying "Goodbye" was painful, and I miss you and your beautiful family already!

Back to school

Early bedtime. Abandoned bike.

Mom with a heavy heart, wondering what that road will bring.

The little pirates

Phase One of the "Get Those Pirates Out of the House" project has begun in earnest.

Two and a half weeks. Is that all? It seems like so much longer. Two and a half weeks of the little savages pillaging and plundering our house. Two and a half weeks of extracting them from my camera bag, the dishwasher, and from behind the boys beds. Two and a half weeks of them gleefully terrorizing Her Royal Highness Ellie, our resident fat indoor cat. Two and a half weeks of nearly failing to keep The Bean from loving them to death (literally).

I've been tossing them out the front door. Under supervision only. The dog almost has me convinced she isn't going to eat them, and "almost" isn't quite good enough.

In two and a half weeks they've gone from "kitten" to "miniature cat".

Oh. And they finally have names.

Captain Hook...



... and Black Beard.



Possibly the least creative names I've ever come up with. My dear husband consoled me by mentioning that my brain is no longer functioning. Instead of being offended, I'm taking it as assurance that I truly am as overwhelmed and exhausted as I feel.

A very good friend threatened to drop off two more kittens. I promised her I'd return the favor by stuffing a hormonal adolescent rooster in her mailbox.

I think I've got all the carousing uncivilized little brutes I can handle at the moment.

But they sure are cute.

A small harvest

I mentioned that we would need some basil for our lunch, and my helpers were keen to collect it themselves. The kids love to play with their food, and honestly, so do I. Assembling bits and pieces into a delicious work of art on your plate is good for the body and the soul.

I'm embarrassed to say how little of anything we've harvested from our pathetic garden this year. But, it's now that time of summer when you don't dare step foot out there without a basket (or two), because you just never know what you're gonna find. Pathetic garden or not, we went through the gate prepared.



I suspected that besides the basil we might want to haul home some yellow zucchini, a giant boquet of swiss chard, maybe a whole bunch of raspberries, and a beet or two.

But THIS?



This does not belong in the garden. Our first order of business was to pick some poultry and toss it out the gate.

Darn chickens.



After securing the perimeter, we started with Garden One. The boys went racing through their maze. Arms flapping, slapping the popcorn leaves. Giggling. Over and over and over.

They slowed down for a minute to check out the sunflowers. We have never grown sunflowers before. I have to admit they're pretty cool. The one plant that is blooming is nowhere near twelve to twenty-four feet tall. That's the other variety, the one that the entire seed packet was crushed. Still, two of them grew.



And then on to Garden Two, and the search for yellow zucchini began. The regular old green ones never grew. Yes, pathetic.



In an effort to distract you from all the weeds in the foreground of that picture (which I did pull that night), check out how tall the cattails are behind the corral fence! Yes, it's true. We were brilliant enough to put our garden in a swamp.

The good news? We almost never have to water. Ever.

I was shocked when the boys pulled two cucumbers out of here. We do not ever have any success with cucumbers. Perhaps with the gorgeous late autumn we are going to have, this year will be different.



But even that delusional thought positive attitude isn't enough to keep my hope alive for a popcorn harvest. Despite that, the sweet corn in Garden Three is looking good.



And here, I had planned to post a picture of the boys with their baskets overflowing with colorful goodness.

This poorly closed KinderGARDEN update has been brought to you by a dead camera battery. Better luck next time.

Linking up with KinderGARDENS week 15

Friendship

They can play just as hard as they fight. It all depends on whether the stars are perfectly lined up, and how long it's been since they had a good snack. But then, there are these certain quiet moments that speak loud and clear...



I Heart Faces - Friendship

Random issues

Scavenger Hunt at Ashley's! It's been awhile since I played.

1. Seeing double/two

We've fallen in love.

I will send them out to the barn... I will send them out to the barn... I will send them out to the barn... I will...

Yes I will. They've only been in the house a week. It's not an issue (yet).



2. Whatever

Socks with my off-brand Crocs. Crocs? Is that even how it's spelled?

I've already proven that I'm a fashion queen.

*sigh* Whatever.



I have control issues. I had to painfully force myself to switch to shooting in plain old jpg for my own day-to-day pictures. Three weddings worth of RAW images to process pushed me over the edge. (I am not a wedding photographer. Just had a few opportunities to test the water.)

3. Sweet

I have attention issues. I forgot to change back to RAW format when we were under the mixed (artificial and natural) lighting in the coop.

My baby with one of her "beebee peep". So sweet.



Sticking my fingers in my ears while singing "la la la" and blissfully ignoring my white balance issues by slapping the ill-fated jpg straight into black and white... sweet. Okay. Not really sweet, but it works. Sort of.

4. Space

The always variable amount of acceptable minimum space between these two brothers fascinates me.



The amount of acceptable minimum space between the Older Brother and The Bean is not variable. Ever. It's starting to become a real issue.

5. Bright

Did I say I have attention issues? My goal here was to take an artistic picture of grass. Don't ask.



He was sitting on a gigantic round bale of hay (grass). I was just a little distracted by his bright shiny eyes.

The popcorn maze

I'm embracing Tara Whitney's mantra of "perfect imperfection" on these photos. I love them. All of them.

Tell me a popcorn maze isn't fun. I dare you.





Here's where I hold my camera above my head and fire away blindly. Bad focus. Wonky composition. Tell me to delete these two? No. Way.





One of us was not obeying the boundaries of the maize, no matter how many times we tried to correct him of his deviant ways. Guess who.





And then he parked his fat behind in the middle of the sunflower hallway.

Honestly, Marshall.



In other news, a grand total of one of our Morning Glory seeds sprouted.



The Older Brother is so so very excited at how much our poor little pumpkin plant has grown since we transplanted it a week ago. All the pumpkin seeds rotted the first time we planted (are you noticing a trend here?). I can't imagine autumn without pumpkins, so we threw caution to the wind and tried again.



That's right, my friends. We're gonna be harvesting pumpkins when it's twenty below zero.

KinderGARDENS - week 13