a plump kid in a candy store

That's how I felt when these lovely ladies arrived on our door step today!
To celebrate World Turtle Day Joe ordered these two beauties from our turtle dealer in SC in hopes that one of them will like our Mad Eye Moody. Poor Moody gets rejected from the other girls all the time. It's kind of pathetic so we thought we would help out a little and bring in some more options. =)

Of course Maribel favours the little one. She named her Mae like the little sister from My Neighbor Totoro. Mae the turt is a curious little one, always wandering off exploring. Maribel gets nervous when the turtles head towards an ant hill that she runs over as fast as she can just so she could carry them over the hill. So cute.

Since Moody is my turtle man I get to name the larger female. I'm not one to name pets in haste so I'm waiting to see if she digs Moody or takes the vow of celibacy. I know Moody wasted no time introducing himself as the tanks Lady's Man so I'm sure it won't be too long for a name.

Here's a pic of our stud with a little food on his face. I Just wish I was able to catch pics of Moody's suave moves. Next time. ;o)

And in case you were wondering these turts are Eastern Box Turtles (Terrapine Carolina.) We love the Eastern Box Turtle. They are just so cute with their cute little faces and the ability to hide themselves inside their cute little shells completly if needed. And oh do they love to hide. One time I 'lost' one for almost an entire day then Joe went to put on a pair of shoes and noticed a pair of beady little eyes peeking at him from inside his docs. We now check our shoes before putting them on. 

Long weekend coming up!
Yippee! 

>^..^<

we just *click*

EEP! I scrimped and saved and finally invested my pennies into a new camera...and oh snap, I'm in love! It's a Pentax Kx with so many bells and whistles and I can't wait to dive right in and learn this baby inside and out. Oo and a bonus part is when I was talking "shop" talk with my Dadeo, he is sending me his 50mm lens that he doesn't use anymore.

Oh happy day!

I have to say that one of my favourite features are the built in filters. There are 7 funky filters plus the option of creating your own. I have always loved the look of the Fish Eye photos and can now acheive the same look with a switch of a setting. Here's a little sample of what I'm talking about.

And of course the perk of capturing video footage on the same camera is stinkin' awesome too! No more missing out on the funny ism's due to not wanting to carry two cameras. I can now catch everything with a quick turn of the dial!

See here...*psst* you'll need to turn off the music on the side bar ==>

Maribel's ABC's well, most of them from Jennifer Carlberg on Vimeo.

While you can see I am having a hoot of a time with this new addition, I'm really motivated to try out the manual mode. So stay tuned for more as I learn the elusive "F Stop".

Hee hee I'm sorry but I can't help it. I love the fish eye filter...I'm addicted.

>^..^<

kissy kissy

Can you see them? Look a little closer...closer...there. Spot them now? Yup. Maribel's kisses from the sun are starting to blossom! They are faint but I promise they are there. Hee hee And this is the part where I must confess that I am a sucker for freckles. I can't help it. I think they are beautiful, especially on red heads ;0)

I hope you have a splendid week! 

>^..^<

i'm rich

People are really noticing little Boo lately. Well, I guess it’s hard not to when her favourite thing to do is lay in the middle of Target’s main floor screaming because I said 'no' to something rediculous that she wanted, like candy. I know, Mean Mom Award goes to me. Any who if I had a nickel for every time I heard,

“Oh my isn’t she tall?”

We would be vacationing in a little cottage in Paris. And yes, you see that picture right. 41.5" to be exact.

Yes, for a 3 year old she’s about the size of a 4 ½ year old and weighs about the same. I know. I'm the one that carries her when she's tired. I also have some large 'guns' because of it heehee
These have been my standard answers these passed couple of weeks:

Yes, she is tall.
Yes she is beautiful. And thank you.
Yes she has red hair. I love it.
No, I do not know where the red hair came from.
No, I haven’t found the bottle number equivalent. Trust me, I looked.
Yes it is cool she looks like me. I look like my dad so it’s only natural to me.
And Yes, I will have to beat the boys away with a stick. Or a snake. Which ever is scarier and most effective.

So instead of nickles I'll take the many blessings that have been poured upon me from being allowed to be her mother, tantrums and all. I'm richer that way =)

and for the record, that is chocolate milk on M's face. This is a usual site when I come home after a long day of work and Joe has her for the day. I've learned to over look it ;0)
>^..^<

what's up chuck?

For a little family time we surprised Maribel with a trip to Chucke Cheese's. I swear if she wasn't buckled in her seat she would have lifted right out of the car through the sun roof. This girl *hearts* Chucke's house.
Like, a lot.

My favourite part of the whole evening <3

I wonder what the adult version of this place would be? Oh yeah, Disney. Maybe next weekend...

Happy Friday Eve!
almost there...almost there...

>^..^<

blow!

Another weekend came and went and I am left sitting here in this Monday morning wondering how it flew by so soon? Where did the weekend go? What did I do again?? Oh yeah...nothing. Well okay, I didn't do exactly nothing, I did manage create a page this weekend. So I guess that counts for something...

Maribel has this thing for bubbles. It doesn't matter if it's rain or shine, if she sees any product that fits the bubble making process she immediately begins the bubble making process. The girl has gotten pretty good at it too.

For this page I really wanted to put an emphasis on the ginormous bubble Maribel was creating so I used some Glossy Accents and covered the entire bubble in the picture. As I was creating this page it seemed like all the planets were aligned and the universe was all liking me because it came together pretty quickly and I always seemed to have just the right shtuff on hand. This was a rare moment for me. I'm usually scramlbing for just the right thing to go here or there. Hey, I'll take it when I get it.

Have a Splendid Day!

>^..^<

add it to the routine

My suspicians have been confirmed, little boo baby has asthma. :0(
The good part is she knows that this machine helps her breathe better so she doesn't fight us too much when it comes time to use it. 

It's the peeling her off the walls afterwards that's...um...not so good.

But at least we can do it at home then at some place like Target. At home the cats couldn't give a rat's bumbum if I head straight for the chocolate ice cream afterwards. And to think, it's only day one...

>^..^<

no crystal ball necessary

Last night I slapped in my cherished copy of The Wizard of Oz and popped some dentist's nemesis to digress. I wasn't the most pleasant to be around so with the combination of my mood and this movie, I decided to make myself a necklace that would give people plenty of warning.

Poor Wicked Witch of the West. She's so misunderstood in this story. I mean come on, if a house landed on my sister I would be more then a little ticked.

It was super easy and quick to make and only took me 10 minutes to make with most of that time waiting for the pictures to print. First you take what pictures you want either from the web or your own photos my next project and crop them to 1.5" square and print. Then you cut them out and detail them as you wish . For mine I printed "Good Day" and "Bad Day" on cardstock and inked the edges. All that was left was to sandwhich the two pics between two pieces of glass and insert into the frame and ta da! Now people won't need a crystal ball to guess what mood I'm in ;0) 

Today I'm starting it with Glinda side out. After all it is a new day and I'm a glass half full kind of girl.
Happy Humpday!

>^..^<

maybe just a little

I think she likes him or something...

Just wanted to drop a quick blurb to say I'm still alive and kicking. Lots to share...later ;0) 

>^..^<

worth every penny

55 pumps of Method laundry detergent: $6.56

5-triple load washing machines: $15

2 large and 1 med sized dryers: $7

Getting all the laundry washed, dried and folded in under 2 hours:

Priceless.

Finally able to drive around without having my car loaded with laundry and people asking me 

"is everything okay at home?":

Worth Every Penny.

>^..^<

lucky ladybug

While playing in the front yard a ladybug landed on my leg and Maribel noticed it right away. She really wanted to hold it so we made the transfer. She loves bugs. Especially ladybugs. After a few minutes Maribel forgot about it and it crawled onto her chest so she went to scratch. My ninja like reflexes caught M's hand just in time but not before the poor ladybug peed all over her chest. Nice.

Did you know that if a ladybug pees on you, it brings good luck? Yup. True story. Later that day we got a call to show the house. The people loved the house so much that they put in an offer for what we were asking. I say that's the luckiest ladybug I know =)

>^..^<