This is one of my new roses, called “First Prize”, they are swirled pink.

We have been planting and weeding and pruning up a storm here! I have LOT’S of pics for you today!!

Yesterday was front yard day. First I cleaned out the gutters, which were horrendous to say the least. Blech! Then I weeded my mums and silver mound, then moved over to my Front Floral thingie and now it’s all spiffed up. First I added a Mandevilla Trellis, which has the most beautiful blooms, they remind me of Hibiscus. We already had a good assortment, the back row against the house you can see day lilies, stargazers right in front of the window, a couple of very tall guys that I believe are coneflowers (can’t remember exactly! LOL), there are a few hostas scattered in front of those, and the big bunch in the front are Primrose that Caitlin picked out last year that have spread like crazy! We needed more color, so yesterday we added some Begonias, and then today a couple of more… first, a couple of Zinnia’s, one is a dark pink the other is light pink. Also planted some Peach Geraniums which are really pretty! We have some Moss Rose that appear to be returning this year, which is the sortof bare looking spot in the front corner. 🙂

On to the side of the house… yes I have been a busy and hopeful green thumber! We had 5 different roses there before, but all but one stopped blooming a few years ago. So I talked to Mark early this morning, he suggested taking those out and replanting new roses. So here you go, honey! Lots and lots of buds on these!! Four new ones, and one oldie! There was a ton to do here, weeds had overgrown all of it, it looked very very yicky. Now, from right to left we have First Prize Roses, which are swirled pink. The large bloom was broken so I clipped it and now it’s sitting right next to me smelling lovely! Next, there’s Remember Me, no tag, but I looked them up and they are a peachy yellow blushing a coral color. Really pretty! There are about 10 buds on that one. Then there are Helmut Schmidt, which are yellow. The next one is the one that has survived since before we lived here, Dark Peach, we always get quite a few blooms on this one throughout the summer. Last but not least (and hopefully not dying!!!), Double Delights, these are cream blushing red.

I also picked up two more, Pink Rhododenderon & Pink Azaelia (I know I spelled that wrong!), those will go on the mound thing I’m shoveling around in the backyard, since it’s partial shade. 😀

Ooh! I almost forgot! (ok I did forget, I’m back editing. LOL) I saw Jayden out in the yard holding really still, and asked her what she was doing. She said “there’s a birdie!” Yup, a baby sparrow, hasn’t quite learned to fly, down on the ground. I moved him away from Chloe (our dog), and awww he’s a baby! he’s so cuuuuute!

I will definitely be putting images up here as they bloom so you can enjoy them with me this year!

xoxoxoxo

Happy Graduation Day, Caitlin!

Yes, my little weed is growing so fast. She’ll be in 3rd grade this fall! She received a “Positive Attitude Award” this morning, and her final report card was super, putting her 2 levels ahead of her grade in reading, and at a 5-6 grade writing level. 😀

I had to run to the doc this morning for some wierd thing I was just curious about that he ended up wanting to see me about. So it turns out I’ve got an infection brewing, and my goofy thing that I was curious about is the beginning stage where your immune system is trying to fight it off. He said if I hadn’t gone in, by Monday I’d have been feeling pretty crappy. So I guess it was a good thing that I got in there! Now I have to go get antibiotics though. Foo. :P~

It’s kinda nice out, the prelude to a rainy blechy weekend, I hate it when the weather teases me like this. LOL Now I am going to try to get outside this afternoon and start working on the landscaping, and then paint this weekend while it rains.

Happy Friday everyone!!!
xoxoxo

Good evening! Well, actually, it’s morning in Iraq, so Good morning (honey!) I hope you all had a good day/night. 😉 The pic is another one courtesy of Mark’s unit. Nice view, huh? It’s got to be strange for him to look at this view and think that sun is just starting to rise over here.

Today was so humid! Pithooey! My feet were sticking to the linoleum so of course I’m mopping, and Jay is slipping and falling on the wet floor, and then there’s crying, and popcorn, and nappy time (yep, I joined her!), then there’s dinner, playtime, bandaging up owie’s for the day, and bedtime. They were so good tonight it made my life peaceful for a moment.

Got some things done here, I changed out the rotating image on the front page, added 3 new oils to the oil gallery, two new inks to the india ink gallery, and trimmed the figurative & other art page – it just looked pretty cluttered up to me. So now I’m good for the time being! I’m putting my florals in with the wildlife now and grouping them more by medium, but they do grow wild, and they are plant life, so it’s all good anyway! 😉

Tomorrow will be busy, I need to get a USB extension cable, mail out some things, and get ready to go to the bank for the closing on the house refinance. I’m so nervous about that!

Oh hey, did I tell you I’m down 35 lbs now? I had a comforter bag full of clothes from ..umm…. 4 years ago? And for giggles I got a pair of shorts out of there and tada! They fit! I only have a few more to go to reach my goal. 😀

::yawn::
nitey-nite friends!
xoxoxo

These photos are phenomenal. Mark sent them over this morning, after a day of humanitarian duty playing soccer and handing out the last of his goodies to the kids there. Aren’t they precious?! They are so happy to have us, it is so nice to see something POSITIVE about our being there. These will definitely lift your spirits!!

This first one, just a few of 50-60 Iraqi children Mark interacted with today. I could just sqwish that little girl!! He said she was adorable, has the biggest puppy dog eyes and is expert at asking for more goodies. 🙂

Here’s Mark (3rd one over from the left) with some children (family?) – you can see they really are enjoying the supplies we provide, and they all spent a good portion of the afternoon playing soccer. The kids won! I asked if I could send a bunch of flip-flops or something for him to hand out, but he said that they are used to barefooting it unless they go to school. Asphalt – 160 degrees, bare feet! Definitely something we all would have to be born and raised in to be accustomed to.

This is the best. Mark with two of the kids, that little one looks to be about 6, yea? Being goofy for the camera! LOL And the older one, looks about 12’ish, wearing Mark’s helmet. That is such a great keepsake for Mark, I know that he’s wanted to rescue these poor folks since the first time he was there. Very very cool pictures, so nice to see them STILL happy to hang out with our guys!

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!!!!
xoxoxo

This is one of the beautiful irises I have growing in my front yard. They just decided to bloom yesterday so I spent a good half hour out there setting up the tripod and getting shots of them. I will probably be painting this one within the next week.

It was a beautiful morning, topped off with yet another fabulous chat with my hubby. He’s got an awful heat rash (prickly heat?) on his back – anyone have any ideas on how to relieve it with limited supplies? I suggested baby powder with corn starch, but I don’t think they had any over there. My poor guy, it’s like 110 over there every day, which just makes it worse having to wear the uniform and gear.

I did get to mail out my fuschia daisy painting to its new owner yesterday, sent a couple more care packages off too, and just kept busy doing this & that all day. I feel like I’m still not caught up, or that there’s more to do and I just don’t know what it is?! It’s raining this afternoon so that shoots my plans to do yardwork. My father in law was here this morning while it was still nice, and he cut the grass for us. Now every time I go outside there’s more and more I need to get taken care of!

I burned a new CD too, if you haven’t been to walmart.com music downloads – it’s very cool! You pay online, pick whatever songs you want or full albums, and download them right to your puter! So I mixed this great selection and it just rocks. Music really is a huge motivator for me, especially when I’m painting & treadmilling.

Oh yea! The weight loss progress! Ok I’ve lost track of the days. I started this whole thing on Jan. 31st. As of today, I’ve lost 34 lbs., and I’m down 2 sizes!! I just ordered a few new trendy things from Old Navy (dot com) in the next size down, so by the time they arrive I should be good to go! WEE! I crave my morning workouts now, don’t feel right without them. This is really moving along so much faster than I had anticipated, and I am so excited about it!

I think that’s all the news I have for now! I wanted to put up a poll too, so I may add that here in a bit. 😀 Update: just added the poll over there to the right, under the giveaway linkie/icon! Have a vote!

I hope you are all doing awesome!!
Love you!!
xoxox

Meet Muffin, my in-laws baby girl. We’ve been watching her this weekend. Isn’t she a sweetie pie? 🙂

Oh yes! I have to show you a couple of crazy pics I took of Jayden the other day. Caitlin had a “Lights On” program at school, evening activites and the like, and Jayden was being a little pistol. Here she is running: Jay Runnin’, and here’s another freaky deaky pic of my little chickiemonkey, Jay Runnin’ Freaky!

We’ve been doing some spring cleaning this weekend. Friday night we went through all of the girls clothes and loaded up a ton of stuff that either doesn’t fit or Caitlin doesn’t like anymore, and this morning I went through my stuff! Of course there’s a ton of stuff that I have to get rid of anyway, cause it just doesn’t fit anymore! 😀 Now I’m debating whether I should list it on ebay, or garage sale it, or give it to Salvation Army. Hm. I could use the cash to get things that FIT, but maaannnn listing everything is a lotta work!

Need to get a few more things done before we can play today. We’ll be making a few batches of brownies, packing up a bunch of boxes to ship out tomorrow to Mark, and then I’m hoping to get some painting in today.

Off I go! Have a great day!
xoxo

Yep, this is my guy. What a man. Wow. Makes me all tingly and patriotic and proud – the list goes on. Add your own adjectives, verbs, whatever you’d like, he’ll be stoppin’ in I’m sure.

::beaming with pride::
xoxoxo

Got your sunglasses on? It’s going to be a beautiful day!!

Ok so I took this pic a couple of weeks ago. But it’s still cool, eh? This is what I get to watch out of my dining room window if/when I get up before dawn. Knocks your eyes right out of their sockets. Yummy sunshine!

It rained all day yesterday here, and the grass – trees – plants – everybody is happy about it! I missed green. Winter is so depressing to me! But yesterday, even with the rain, it was an outstanding day.

I didn’t paint. I messed around all day with friends online.

Part of my sluffing off around the house included taking some new photos for my hubby. I think that’s what put me in a fabulous mood! I knew that I’m losing weight, and that’s cool and all, but you know sometimes you don’t see it for yourself until you start comparing pics. Well that’s what I was doing, looking at pics I took a month ago compared to now, and woah! How motivating! I’m still down 25.5 lbs., wavering back & forth a pound or two, but still working away at it, and the results are totally visible to me now. The last two days have been great treadmill days too, I’ve gone 2.5 miles both Monday and Tuesday.

What an exciting life I lead, huh?

The results are in on the new printer. I’ve decided to go ahead and get the Epson all-in-one, which sports some super cool waterproof and 70-year archival inks! I’ll probably pick it up within the next week. Right now I’m refinancing the mortgage which is on a 5-year balloon coming due in June, so that’s a “right now gotta do it” thing. Then next week we’ll be car shopping. Well not so much shopping as trying to talk them down to my price, and getting the color and features I want without ending up with a lemon. (Wish me luck, I attract lemons with every large purchase! LOL)

So there you go. (stop your yawning!) 😉

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!

xoxo

It’s Caitlin’s turn to say good morning! This cute little short outfit brought to you by none other than the Easter bunny.

I had mentioned starting work on Mark’s second portrait. Well here are a couple of shots of what’s going on with it. First, we have the full painting, which is an accurate color representation, even tho you can’t see him. The piece is 24×36 on 1-1/2″ deep gallery wrapped canvas, and the sides are gradated to match. Then there’s the close up of his face where you can see his profile outlined. And this is the photo I’m working from here. You like? He’s a handsome fella. I will work on this one soon. Gotta finish up that Daisy, which I plan on working on today. 🙂

Back later with more! Have a great day!

xoxo
-me!