And our 2nd photo challenge is going to be….*drumroll please* about Colors and Objects.

We’re trying to iron out a few kinks because we (Polynesian Princess and I) realized we didn’t quite understand what the other was talking about since we got the “rules” together last min and over email at work… but here are basic rules, -details may change a bit… and feel free to join us!!

• You have to blog a photo every day
• It has to be something of a certain color (blue, green, yellow, red)
• It has to be one of the 7 items previously established (food, nature, clothing/fabric, text, office supplies, household item, wild card)
• Each week you have to capture an item in each of these categories

Week One (3/31-4/6): Blue

Today on my walk I took a picture from the “text” category.

The “Chevron” is blue and the gas station closest to my home.  Notice the outrageous gas prices… how do they compare to where you live??

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480242/

 

I had a pizza and movie  date with my hubby tonight . I picked Dan in Real Life.  I’m not going to try to be a movie critic or anything, so maybe I shouldn’t title it “review” but that is what it is basically. But just my opinions of the movie

Dan in Real Life stars Steve Carell (from The Office- love that show btw) and Dane Cook (the comedian) and also Juliette Binoche who is in mostly international films it looks likes. Dan (Carell) is a widower with 3 daughters and Mitch (Cook) is one of his brothers and Marie (Binoche) is a love interest. Basically the whole thing is set at their parents house for an annual family gathering. Of course all families have their ups and downs/good times and not so good of times and it just takes you through that. It is a comedy- if you couldn’t’ tell, so you will laugh a lot! I laughed, I cried (well close, I got a little teary) then laughed again, cried again, laughed again… back and forth really. So if your moods are feeling a bit unstable I suggesting waiting until you balance out to watch this movie… haha.

One of my favorite parts is (if you’ve seen previews you have probably seen this part) the middle daughter is mad at her dad for sending her boyfriend away because shes obsessively in love with him but has only known him for 3 days and he is older. She screams at him “YOU ARE A MURDERER OF LOVE.” so funny. But the even funnier part of it is when they are discussing talents. One of the sisters says that Dan doesn’t have a talent and he replies, “oh yes I do, I am a murderer of love, write that down.”

 

It’s a good movie, I recommend you go rent it! I give it… 4 out of 5 stars.

“You will look back on the times you laughed and you will cry. You will look back on the times you cried, and you will laugh. You will always remember close friends, and you will always keep memories of them in your heart.” ~unknown

 

Have you ever wished you go back in time? Not to change it but to relive it or watch a certain moment? A memory that plays in your head once in awhile and you wonder if you are remembering it right or if nostalgia has taken over making it seem better than it was.

So there are 2 rules:

1. You aren’t allowed to change the past (as MA said today “you don’t want to come back missing a toe or something because you changed something you shouldn’t have)
2. You can either view it like a movie or actually relive it but you won’t be able to make any different choices (think of now when you have a voice in your head telling you maybe you shouldn’t do that or turn down a different road but you ignore it, that’s what your past body will be doing with your present brain…get it?)

You have to list

• your age
• the year
• location
• why you are going back to this

birth- approx. 6th grade, 1982-1994, Grandparents Cottage:

These are my most vivid young memories. My grandparents lived on a lake called Crooked Lake in the city-or town not sure- of Lake, MI. One set of cousins were the same exact ages as me and my brother and sister (and opposite genders of the same age). The girl was always the one to be born first: My sis Erin born in Aug 79 cousin Joseph Dec 79, I was born March 4th 82 and cousin Michael born March 14th 82, cousin Mary born Oct 85 and brother Michael born Nov 85. We had the best times together playing anything from detective/mystery make believe to “Seaweed Cafe” in the lake making meals out of seaweed, sand and shells. We even made up a game called Super Pickle. We pretended to be drowning and someone was a lifeguard and jumped in to save us, but the parents got so mad we would yell help and they would all come running, so we were not allowed to play that game anymore. So we got around the parents rules and made up “super pickle” and yelled “Pickle, Pickle” instead of “help, help” :) LOL.

Age 17, 1999, Spain

My first out of the country trip, besides Canada- but that doesn’t count when you live in Michigan, almost everyone goes to Canada. Experiencing a different culture is far greater than words. I just wish I was able to speak the language better. I knew the vocab but making conversation was not something that was really taught to us. I have more visual memories than pictures actually. This was before digital, and at a stage where pictures of people were more interesting than scenery or architecture.

Age 18, Summer of 2000, Oscoda MI Old Orchard Campground.

By far the best collective period of time I have ever had. If you say go back to one period of time to start living over, that summer would be it. It was the most carefree time I have ever had. Polynesian Princess put it best: “We had all the freedom of an adult and the responsibilities of a high school student. It was a perfect time.”

Age 24, 2007, Clearwater FL- Wedding Day

This was the best day. It is always nice for a day to be all about you lol. I am not the type of person that likes people to dote on her and give her all the attention, but it is nice once in a while! And of course to marry my hubby finally after being together for 6 years! It was about time to prove our love and commitment. We shared a glorious, beautiful day with close family and friends. It was January in Florida but it was 80 degrees that day. it was not too hot, it was very warm espeically for the few guys that wore suits, but it didnt feel overly hot or humid. It was on the beach, so we got the best pictures near the ocean, it was beautiful. My wrap/shawl matched the color of the ocean, it was a seagreen/light blue (the color changed in different lighting and was actually almost a catastrophy when I realized this after I bought it!) It is funny that nothing went exactly right, but I got really good advice from different people so I was in the mindset not to dwell on it, but just to enjoy the day, and it really worked. It was a very surreal day and I would love to go back just to try to pay attention to more details that I missed in the excitment of the day.

I’ll add more later if I can think of any other, but I have to get back to work! haha Your Turn!!

Unfortunately I can’t have something really exciting as my last day on the photo challenge… but YEA I made it to day 30 without too many hiccups! I know not all the days were all that interesting, but I did throw in the disclaimer that I didn’t think I would find something too interesting everyday as my life is… well rather… normal (I won’t say boring haha).

 But as I was saying… my not so interesting topic: today we finally got our taxes done! We tried on our own, but I wanted to take this in somewhere as it was our first year filing jointly and we had some concerns/questions in a few areas, so I thought better to be safe then sorry! So we took it to HR Block… I don’t really recommend this as they charge way too much! (but if you do want to go I can give you a coupon to get $15 off and I get $15 too if you use it! so let me know!) But at least I had piece of mind that we were doing it right. Even though I probably could have done it myself as the lady who did it… didn’t seem to know everything and I actually had to tell her what to do a few times… I was kind of worried there… lol. but whatever, its done and over with! I hate dealing with finances… it’s just one of those things and I cringe and get bored whenever the subject comes up! So I’m safe for a little while longer at least…

And two more posts to finish the challenge! Last day will be tomorrow and I’ll have 30 days of pictures posted woohoo.

It is always good to hold yourself accountable… you always hear that, right. Well in order for me to get anything done I have to do that. I had to hold myself accountable to post picture blogs every day for the past 29 days- although I slacked a little by being too tired to actually post them, I did take one every single day… and I knew when I didn’t post it because I have documented proof! so I had to do it to finish the challenge. and when I was trying to eat right I kept a journal to track my progress. If I didn’t write it down no  one, including myself, would realize where I slipped up. Right now, I’m trying to hold myself accountable to keep an exercise routine. Every little bit counts right now when I’m trying to get myself motivated and in a routine. So I am tracking on a blank calendar what I do daily. If I have to document it, it’s going to make me want to do more, I’m not going to want to see a bunch of blank days on the sheet of paper!

I have a perfect dvd to get me started… It’s a kickboxing video which breaks each segment into 10 mins. Each segment focus’s on a different area. So before I get in the shower in the morning, I take the time to do one segment. 10 mins isn’t a lot of time, and I dont have to get up any earlier, and I get moving and a little more energy to start my day. Then at night my husband and I are trying to get back into walking. When we don’t really feel like it, we’ll just walk down to the front of the complex and back which takes about 15 mins. It’s a start! I’m eventually going to get up 10 mins early to get in 2 segments in the morning, and I have this yoga dvd I might work into the night routine. We’ll see how it goes… I will try to hold myself accountable with this!

When was the last time you saw the sun rise? I mean really rise, not just get light out. I can’t tell you the last time for me… probably way back when when I used to stay up all night, I caught the sun rise that way once or twice But on my way into work this morning the timing was just right and I got to see the sun coming up. I only drive east for about 1/2 a block in the morning, then I turn and drive south, so I never see it. But probably because of the time change, it was perfect. It was pretty cloudy this morning but just right to see the sun shine through coming up over the roadway. It was beautiful and I wish I could have gone out the beach to watch it rise the rest of the way up… maybe one weekend I will have to try to do that… it was a great start to my morning!

My Love… my sweet little love, lost. And I had to replace my love, and it’s just not the same. My love, you wonder… my hairbrush. It is gone… Oh I miss it… I seriously have had the same round brush for Years and Years… and it was very good to me. This weekend it flew off the counter into… the toilet! And for those of you who don’t know me… I’m a bit of a germ-a-phobe and could not stand the thought of touching it and using it in my hair after that… so my love, my favorite brush ever, the one who has lasted so long, is now replaced… I could not find the same one unfortunately… and I can’t stand the one type of bristles because it makes my hair static-y or gets tangled. It has to be those hard nylon bristles. But the only one I could find that was close was Huge, a lot bigger than my other one. But I figured, I need one, might as well try it. Well… the worst part… it PULLS my hair! I dont know how or where its pulling from but it hurts! And it makes me miss my old brush even more… I wish I had taken a pic of my old one… but here is my new one… hopefully I will learn to love it the same… if it stops pulling!

 

Happy St. Patricks Day!! You know, I should probably know where the tradition started of wearing green on St Patricks day… but I’m ashamed to say I don’t… I’m not going to lie, I’ll admit my faults. But I really don’t have a clue. It would be something I would normally look right up, but being that I’m short on time tonight, I won’t. So if you know… clue me in    But I did wear my green! I had to, I’m Irish!

My rabbits try to be tricky sometimes before they will go into their cages after I let them back inside (we have recently removed the ginormous cage from the spare room and let them run around on the screened in balcony). They try to run past me and hide under the coffee table or the kitchen table. As soon as I tap them on their backside they take off running like it’s a game. They usually make a run for the spare room which used to be their room, “the bunny room,” and occasionally hide under the bed and won’t come out. For some reason they like to run behind the cage when I finally get them back towards the cages now positioned in the living room. Snowball has found that the vertical  blinds are very entertaining.  The blinds reach the floor and he tries to walk in between them or behind them, and he picks them up with his teeth. I don’t know if he likes the noise or the fact he can move something so “big.” I took a cute picture of him doing it, so I thought I’d use that as my pic of the day!

Isn’t he cute??

 

Picture taken March 16th, 2008 

I made a run for the border… no, not the Real border as in state or country… and no, not even the taco bell border (that was a great slogan by the way) but yum does that sound good right now… but the book store, borders. I got a giftcard from my lil bro for my birthday. I was like a kid in a candy store, so much to choose from and not sure what was most important.

The first book I picked up was “Eat Pray Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert. I first read about this book in a magazine, I think it was an Oprah pick if I’m not mistaken. I then heard about it from my friend Polynesian Princess. She actually got it from someone else, too. So I figure it must be good you hear about it from so many places, right? My friend told me that it was good, she said there was a part in the middle that was kind of slow but once you get past that it gets better. But Then after I buy it and tell her I bought it, she tells me the book is depressing! haha. Gee thanks for the late warning. But then she did say she was glad she read it but the author kind of “bugged her.” So we’ll see if I like it! I’ll have to give my own review after I read it. ask me in about 5 yrs after I finish all my books I have to read right now. Ha- Joking

The next book that looked intriguing was “Something Borrowed” by emily giffin (don’t know why but she does not put her name in caps so this was not a typing error on my part). I am kind of excited about this one because if I like it I already have a series to read with “Something Blue” and “Baby Proof” and also her coming soon book is called “Love the one you’re with.” so we’ll see how that goes. I also heard about this book previously, and then when I picked it up and started reading the first page of the first chapter I knew I had to get it. Here is part of the excerpt that I liked…

I was in the fifth grade the first time I thought about turning thirty. My best friend Darcy and I came across a perpetual calendar…So we located our birthdays in the following year… I got Wednesday, a school night. She got Friday. A small victory, but typical. Darcy was always the lucky one. Her skin tanned more quickly, her hair feathered more easily, and she didn’t need braces…She had a better sticker collections. More Michael Jackson pins. Forenza sweaters in turquoise, red and peach (my mother allowed me none- said they were too trendy and expensive.

This passage made me laugh, and made me compare it to my own childhood and it was pretty much the same! Other then the author is the only child and her friend Darcy had a sibling, it was the other way around for me, but everything else seemed to fit. My best friend seemed to have all the “luck,” and the tanned skin, the better hair, the better clothes lol. So since I could see so much just in the first page of the book I knew I had to get it!

And lastly, my hubby actually picked this book up for me knowing I would absolutely adore it… It is titled “Our Family Tree and Album.” It guides you to fill in all this information about your family: names, places you visit, how different members of the family act and how you relate to certain situations, etc. And also has places for you to put pictures in! Of course I love the last part the best haha. So you are creating your own family tree and album using this book and I just think that is the best thing. And when we have kids we add in their names and pictures, and then pass it down to them so they have record of our family. I wish I had that, that would be cool. My grandma actually did a family geneology search and traced us back to the Salem Witches, crazy huh?? I never did get to see it though, I always wanted to look at the results but she lived in FL I lived in MI so we rarely saw her. But now since I see her more I’ll have to remember to ask next time I’m there…

But that was my exciting book trip… lots of fun things to read now, and even a great little project to do!

 

3-15-08