The Junior Prom

I cannot believe I am actually saying the words "my daughter went to her junior prom"!
My little girl - JUNIOR PROM!!


My little sweet, fun-loving, spirited little girl has outgrown all little girl things...




and has turned into a young lady....

She did go to the prom and she had a wonderful time. These pictures remind me that although she's not my "little girl" anymore, she is still as sweet as she was back when she was my little girl.

I Think I've Fallen In Love..... All Over Again!

The weekend was filled with a 4.5 lb ball of fur. It's amazing how busy you can get with the care of such a little life. It's been hectic but it is so worth it. Yes, she's just a puppy and yes it hurts when she chomps on our arms, hands, fingers, and toes but when she's done playing with us and done gnawing on us, she wants nothing more than to crawl up on us and drift to sleep.

I know we are in for a lot of work. I knew going into this. But, she has stolen all of our hearts.

I've Only Paused For Station Identification.....

I plan on doing a full post tomorrow. Got a new puppy (which involved an 8 hour round-trip car ride) and had a junior prom all on Friday. Today was a whirl of driving all over dropping things and people off at different places, a quick 40 minute nap, and then church tonight.

I have lots of puppy pictures and prom pictures that I do want to share. I will be back!! Please be patient with me.

"I Wanna Talk About Me" aka A Meme From Angie

I visited Angie Arthur's blog today and she had a meme to participate in....

Okay, Angie, here goes!

(Oh, and if anybody is a Toby Keith fan, you will recognize the title of my blog entry today)

1. Were you named after anyone?
My mom – her name is Dorothy Mary. Never quite understood why I was just name Dorothy – no middle name, and I’m the youngest and the only one out of my four siblings who didn’t get a middle name. I guess times were tough when I was born


2. When was the last time you cried?
I guess my last really good cry was the day I had to put my young, otherwise physically healthy (but not mentally) dog to sleep in August. She was so happy and wagging her tail but all involved in her care knew it was best for her.


3. Do you like your handwriting?
Absolutely not!

4. What is your favorite lunch meat?
None, I don’t care much for lunch meat.

5. Do you have kids?
Yes, I have two wonderful teenagers who have been featured at various times on my blog.

6. If you were another person, would you be friends with you?
I think I would. Except when I get in a bad mood, then I would have to drop me as a friend!

7. Do you use sarcasm?
Yes, but would prefer it if I didn’t – I do try to stop myself.

8. Do you still have your tonsils?
No, they came out in sixth grade! And, they stuck me in a pediatric ward with a room full of screaming babies and toddlers who cried all night long! Yup, that was back in the day when they actually kept you IN the hospital after surgery. I was the only one in the ward who was old enough to talk!


9. Would you bungee jump?
Nope, not for all the money in the world.

10. What is your favorite cereal?
Like Angie, I’m a kid – who loves Lucky Charms!! However, I usually eat frosted mini wheats or Cheerios because they are “healthy”.


11. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?
Not always, but I hate having to untie them to get them back on so I do make an attempt to untie when removing.


13. What is your favorite ice cream?
Ditto Angie!! -Anything with chocolate and peanut butter in it.

14. What is the first thing you notice about people?
Eyes and smile!

15. Red or pink?.
Pink.

16. What is the least favorite thing about yourself?
The fact that the weight seems to be finding me lately – I guess Easter didn’t help this either.


17. Who do you miss the most?
I am fortunate, I have my family close by.

18. Do you want everyone to complete this list?
It would be fun if they did but whatever.


19. What color pants and shoes are you wearing?
Jeans and black clogs!

21. What are you listening to right now?
My music playlist – “Moonlight Serenade” by Glenn Miller.

22. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
Periwinkle!

23. Favorite smells?
Clean baby heads, baked apple anything, my son after he has showered with his Ax shower gel, my hub when he uses his cologne.


24. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?
My neighbor last evening.

25. Do you like the person who sent this to you?
I most certainly like the person who put this out there on her blog (Angie) and we have never even met, only chatted on the phone, but I hope one day to have a photo excursion planned with her!

26. Favorite sports to watch?
Baseball and ice hockey.

27. Hair color?
Reddish brown but going gray so I am now “supplementing”.

28. Eye color?
Very blue!

29. Do you wear contacts?
No, I have to wear progressives – doc said contacts won’t work for me….. big bummer there.

30. Favorite food?
Pasta with seafood on top!

31. Scary movies or happy endings?
No scary movies...ever. Hate them. I don’t do anything scary movie-wise – dates back to nightmares I had as a kid. I love happy endings!


32. Last movie you watched?
Legally Blonde for the umpteenth time – I love that movie!

33. What color shirt are you wearing?
Maroon long-sleeved t-shirt.

34. Summer or winter?
Summer for sure!

35. Hugs or kisses?
Kiss for those close to me, hugs for everyone else.

37. Most likely to respond?
Hate this question too.

38. Least likely to respond?
Hate this question.

39. What book are you reading now?
Nothing at the moment – too busy with blogging and photography.

40. What is on your mousepad?
I don't have a mousepad. I have a laser mouse and I just use it on whatever surface is close by.


41. What did you watch on t.v. last night?
A bit of Little People Big World, but I was on my laptop most of the evening watching my new puppy play with her siblings on Ustream.


42. Favorite sounds?
Sweet sounds of springtime/summertime – birds, the whir of a lawnmower in the distance, and my kids just discussing something fun.


43. Rolling Stones or Beatles?
Beatles.

44. What is the farthest you've been away from home?
Backpacked through England, Ireland, and Wales!


45. Do you have a special talent?
I used to draw, play piano and flute but I lost my talented genes when I gave birth to my kids.


46 Where were you born?
Philadelphia, PA

47. Whose answers are you looking forward to getting back?
Anyone who wants to leave their answers in the comments below. I love reading how we are all different and similar.


48. How did you meet your spouse/significant other?
I met my hub on a blind date. I worked with Nancy, he worked with Jeff, Nancy and Jeff were a couple so they introduced us. We were actually both at Nancy and Jeff’s wedding but never noticed each other.

I Heart Faces, Self-Portrait

Maneuvering an SLR camera around in one hand to take one's self-portrait is no easy feat but I did manage, after about sixty-seven shots, to get my face in it! I also was trying to obtain a sketch-like quality to this photo.

Be sure to go on over to I Heart Faces so you can finally see the faces of the women (and men too) behind the lenses!!

Welcome Ruby

Today was puppy pick out day. It was much harder than I thought it would be and I was so torn between two of the three puppies I had to choose from. but, after 45 minutes of watching, hugging, and just holding these babies, this is the one who has found her forever home with us.

Oh, and my daughter picked the name about a month ago as Ruby is a character in "The Five People You Meet In Heaven" and my daughter liked the name of the character a lot. My son also said the name was cool with him too.

Ruby will come home with us on Friday, April 24.

Fix-It Friday, I Heart Faces

This is my first time participating in Fix-It Friday. With my photo, I adjusted the contrast a smidge, darkened the "highlights", and then ran a film grain filter. Oh, and I used CS4.

Skywatch Friday

Here are my entries for this week's Skywatch. If I could only get rid of the power/telephone lines, house and trees on my street, I'd be sharing fabulous unobstructed sky views. Oh well, if you want to see some amazing unobstructed views of the skies, head on over to Skywatch! The earth may be large, but each and every one of us looks up at the exact same sky - we just capture it at different times and in varying states of beauty.

The Fun of You Tube

Because of all of the excitement surrounding this year's contestant, Susan Boyle, on Britain's Got Talent, I ended up going through the videos of several other entries.

It got me thinking about the time my husband and I went to see Michael Flatley in Lord of the Dance quite a few years ago - it was thrilling beyond all expectations. The clip I have here is from a segment of Michael Flatley's routine and is the basis for one of the entries on Britain's Got Talent 2009. Michael Flatley enters at about 2:20 minute mark. Also, you'll need to pause my blog music while viewing this.




Now, click here to watch "Stavros Flatley". I loved this and hope you do too!

As an aside, Michael F. was in town last week as the World Championships of Irish Dance was held on American soil for the first time ever! How I wish my daughter still danced - it would have been so cool to be a part of this!!!

A Day At The Spa

My birthday just seems to be continuing, and continuing... My good friend took me to the spa today for a Swedish massage. I did have one of these once before but for some reason didn't enjoy it a whole lot because, I think, I just couldn't relax enough to enjoy it. Today, relaxing was not an issue at all and I absolutely loved it!




On Saturday, we will make the 6 hour round trip to select one of these little ones (another birthday gift from my husband) and then next week we will return to pick up our selection and bring her home. Thanks to Terry for sharing these photos of the litter. Saturday, I hope to take a few of my own photos!

Heck, if I play my cards right, I just could be celebrating my March 11, 2009, birthday well into 2010! This turning 50 isn't as bad as I thought it would be because the celebration has been never ending.

Finally, I had wanted to share a YouTube video featuring Susan Boyle, a contestant on Britain's Got Talent, however they seem to have disabled the "embed" feature for this video so, if you haven't heard or seen her, be sure to go to the above link - you will be amazed and possibly even moved to tears - I know I was.

That's it for now. I hope to get some photo editing time in in the next few days - hope being the operative word...

Happy Easter!!

I hope your day was filled with lots of fun moments with family and friends. These pics are from last evening. We had a great time dyeing our eggs.

I had a bit of fun with Photoshop on my family's faces. I used the sepia action and also the grain filter on my son's photo. His was a bit out of focus and since Angie Arthur gave that tip about how to enhance our less than satisfactory photos, rather than send the picture to the recycle bin, I did some editing.

It tends to make his freckles stand out even more - he didn't care for it but I like it. What do you think?

Skywatch Friday, Fiery Sky

I stood in the middle of our usually fairly busy street to take these photos the other night. Fortunately, not one car came down for about the 10 minutes I was standing there watching the color changes. I'm glad because it was amazing to watch the shades of orange appear and then fade. My neighbors were laughing at me though - however, they're my friends and are getting used to seeing me with the camera hanging from my neck. I've gotten quite a reputation - now they want me to come over on Easter morning to take some family pics. I was thrilled they asked me!

Be sure to go and visit Sky Watch Friday to see what other photographers got to see from all around the world. Their photos are amazing!!!

Shop Talk, Photoshop That Is

I am trying so hard to find the time to learn Photoshop CS4. Evenings seem to be the only time I can get and then I'm too tired to concentrate, and trying to follow the various steps in photo editing become too garbled and confusing for my brain. However, I did manage to follow Amy's (Living Locurto) tutorial on the I Heart Faces blog on how to change color in photos. She has a great video tutorial on just this topic!

I hit one little glitch that I can't figure out but hopefully it isn't that noticeable to others.....

My daughter has this smile on her face today as she (and my boy) are on break for Easter until Tuesday - let's hear it for Easter break!!!

Art By A Fellow Blogger

One of the blogs I visit frequently is owned by an artist who does amazing caricatures of absolutely everything. When I visited his blog today, this was what his post was about. He welcomed his readers to share it if we wanted to and I did.

I thought it was a great way to sum up what this week is all about. My 15-year-old son will be one of the 12 apostles tomorrow night (Holy Thursday) and will be getting his feet washed during the service. I don't know that I'll be taking photos of it because I don't know if would be appropriate for me to be waving my camera around during the ceremony.

Anyway, I liked this depiction by my fellow blogger over at Organized Doodles. You have to go and check out his stuff - most of it is really funny and his work is amazing!

I Heart Faces, My Friend and Me, Week 13

I AM SUCH AN AIRHEAD! THIS PHOTO DOESN'T QUALIFY FOR I HEART FACES AS I HAVE ONE TOO MANY PEOPLE IN IT. OOOOOPs! Sorry Angie/Amy - this is what happens when your brain hits the half-century mark!

Here is my entry for this weeks' I Heart Faces them - My Friend and I, or in this case, My Friends and I. This was my daughter and the other two-thirds of what they call "Tres Amigos". They are all in marching/concert band together and are really nice kids and have a lot of fun together. This photo was taken the night of their soph hop. They didn't dress shop together - and I guess that is why they all ended up in polka dots!! None of them knew what the others purchased! But, I think the colors looked wonderfully fun together.

Be sure to check out I Heart Faces, both the kids and the adults categories, for other wonderful snapshots of friendships!














It's amazing how quickly these little ones are growing and the date we pick out our next little pup is not approaching quickly enough for me. April 18, we will choose and then approximately two weeks later, the newest member of my family will make the long journey with us to her new forever home.

Trying Out Some Accompaniment

I visit lots of blogs on a daily basis. There are a few that have terrific music playing and I find that I tend to hang there a bit more because I like the song selection. My blog is very quiet and I am a person who will usually have music playing somewhere in my home at many points throughout my day.

So, after consulting with my blog's executive board, it was decided that I should give some musical accompaniment a try. However, there will be no hard rock or objectionable lyrics here - my blog will maintain a G rating status and I hope the visitors I have will enjoy some of the selections I chose - some of which reflect the big band style music that was played in my home when I was growing up.

Oh, and I did takes some photos last night and today of the earliest signs of spring emerging - with the exception of the photo of the hail. That was just a fluke this morning and hopefully we will have no reruns of that kind of weather for the duration of our spring/summer.

Skywatch Friday

Be sure to visit Skywatch Friday for some amazing photographs of the skies from all around the globe.

The Big Time/Let's Play Ball!

Back in January, I blogged about my daughter auditioning for and taking part in the All-Catholic Band, a band made up of select musicians from all of the Catholic high schools in our Archdiocese. This concert took place, luckily, at our high school (they rotate the schools and it was our turn this year) and was wonderful. The kids really shined and the whole experience was great for her.

Within the last three weeks, they began practicing for another "concert" that would actually be taking place in a real live concert hall. Although I thought that was a neat idea, I was a little bent out of shape at the amount of school time my daughter would be missing for these rehearsals and I began to wish that she wasn't involved in this band - school days missed and increased stress over missed tests and homework deadlines were beginning to grate on my last nerve.

After last night's performance at THE top concert hall in our city, I've done a complete about face - the concert was phenomenal and it was such an honor for her and many others to get to perform on a real stage!

They opened up with the chorus made up of all grade-school age special needs kids - the songs were sweet and the children sang/signed their little hearts out. This was followed by the high school band, the elementary school band, the elementary school orchestra, elementary school chorus, the high school chorus, the high school orchestra, and then a finale made up of all of the choruses, bands, and orchestras, wherein they played the Battle Hymn of the Republic. (please note green arrow pointing to my daughter).

It was an amazing undertaking for all involved, and a breathtaking performance by a several hundred children. Amazing memories were made last evening - the kids will remember this forever!

And, to top it off, our own high school marching band (which includes both of my kids) will be escorting World Series Champions, the Phillies, into Citizens Bank Park for the home opener this Sunday evening!!!!! This honor couldn't come at a better time as the band's annual trip, that all of the kids live for each year, had to be canceled due to the difficult economic times we are now facing. There had been such disappointment over this cancellation and while they truly understood the reasons why, for the seniors especially, this has been such an anticlimactic end to their high school band years.

So, I don't know if the game is on national TV on Sunday night but if you see/hear a marching band, my kids will be in there!!