Future Computer Geeks of America

Much like insects are drawn to light, there's something magnetic about the glow coming from a giant computer monitor. Bring up Yahoo! games and the glow becomes simply irresistible!

I have no qualms with raising a computer-literate child. Judge me, if you will, for plopping my 6-year old in front of an iMac to play a parquetry puzzle game online. I figure that feeding his mind with a computer game is more constructive than allowing him to sit in front of the television all summer watching SpongeBob reruns.

Little Chefs Academy

Mason's been invited to all kinds of birthday parties over the last few years from parties at the park, Chuckie Cheese, roller skating and bowling. Last weekend, he was invited to an alien-themed party at Little Chefs Academy. The children were going to be making green pizza and green cupcakes. Fun!


The kids learned the value of cleanliness, measuring and waiting your turn.



Scoop. It's okay if you get a little flour on the counter and even on YOU.


Tap, sweep then put it in the bowl.


Dump it in to the mixing bowl. How many cups did we need, again?


The food coloring wasn't mixed in with the dough. The yeast, itself, was soaked in the food coloring, so the green color didn't stain the kids' hands! Cool, very cool.

I have to admit that, even though it was fun for the kids to make the green pizza, it doesn't look very appetizing.


I think we could put pepperoni on apple pie and Mason would eat it.


The kids didn't seem to notice that the crust was a lovely shade of mold. Gross.


There was even green alien juice. I'm not sure which part of the alien this juice came from, but I'm not sure I don't want to know.


After pizza, it was time for dessert! The kids iced their own cupcakes...


...complete with green icing...


...M&M's, gummy worms and chocolate sprinkles.

Will work for food!

The House...

We've had an exciting last few weeks here in Atlanta! Mason finished up swimming lessons, we visited my sister and put an offer in on an amazing house. Curious about the interior? Check it out here: (click me)

Fun With Water (part 3):

Last weekend, while Brian fished and did guy things in northern Georgia, Mason and I headed to Daleville, Alabama to visit Tiffani and Athena. Guess what?! They only live 2 hours from Panama City! Perhaps living in the boondocks isn't ALL bad.


The kids had fun playing in the surf while Tiffani and I chatted it up under the umbrellas. The waves were unusually high and due to a posted double-red flag, the kids were not to be any deeper than knee high in the water. We can't have children drifting off to see, now can we?


I really think they enjoyed having the waves splash over them...


...it just doesn't get any better than a hot day and cool salt water!


Athena is headed off to Colorado to spend time with her Nina so Tiffani can study for her board exams. Don't tell her that I think she's crazy for choosing surgery (which puts her in school for another 800 years). School was never my gig, though. I'm so proud of the sacrifices she has made and teaching Athena to never give up on something you want. Go get 'em sis!

Blueberry Pickin' Alabama Style...

Tiffani and I spied this pick-your-own blueberry patch on the way to Panama City on Friday. By the time we had come back to it in the early evening, the adorable old man let us know that the mosquitoes would likely carry us away if we were outside picking blueberries during that time of the evening. Since we knew the mosquitoes were likely to carry away the small children before moving on to larger prey, we decided to swing by in the morning (yes, on our way to Panama City...again).

A lot of things pleasantly surprised me about Alabama: the first being the abundance of fresh produce. It makes sense, though. It's warmer year-round in the South, making it easier to grow delicious fruits like these giant blueberries.


Secondly: despite the fact that Atlanta is only a mere 4 hours from Daleville, it was significantly hotter. Holy cow was it hot. As you can tell, the kids were miserable.


We each took a gallon bucket to place our little gems into. I'm not sure ALL of the blueberries landed IN the buckets. I'm sure one or two or five or twenty fell out of the bushes directly into our mouths. Weird, right? It's almost like the bushes were throwing them at us!


Okay, so little fingers were putting the blueberries into their mouths.


I guess it's not considered "work" if they are having fun, right?


...and reaping the fruits of their labor. Oh man are those babies delicious!


I don't think I have ever seen that many blueberries in my life!


Handfuls (and mouthfuls) of them! In less than an hour, we had picked a full gallon of plump, sweet blueberries.

Guess how many pounds of blueberries are in a gallon...go ahead, guess.

A gallon of blueberries weighs just over 7 lbs. CRAZY! What's even crazier still is that for 7 lbs. of pick-your-own blueberries, Tiffani and I paid only $10.50. Pie anyone?

Fun With Water (part 2):

Swim lessons are in full swing this summer. Mason had his first lesson on Monday and there were only 2 other students in the class. The next two lessons were rescheduled due to "contamination" in the pool. I didn't ask questions...I'm sure I don't want to know.

The weather forecast for Thursday did not look promising for outdoor swim lessons, but we headed toward the pool anyway. Lucky for Mason, the other two students dropped out of the class! So, he's getting private swim lessons for the price of a class. Yes!!!


He caught me taking his photo. Hey there!


Streamlining your body to go through the water quickly is one of the first techniques Jason taught. Mason looks like he could use a cheeseburger, or two, in this photo. I really do feed him...really!


Just checkin' to make sure you're still back there, buddy.


Floating isn't really a real-world situation kind of technique, but it certainly makes you more comfortable in deep water. He floated on his own for a few seconds before he realized Jason's hands weren't there. Sneaky!


Learnin' the freestyle swim.


Take a deep breath! It's time to put your face in the water!


Swim lesson complete for the day! Jason let Mason choose 2 things he wanted to do for the very end of the lesson. Jumping into the water was one of them. He really caught some air!

Stay tuned...more water fun to come! Mason and I are headed to Alabama for the weekend to visit Tiffani and we are goin' to the beach! Yes!

Fun with Water (part 1)...

The Honda was long overdue for it's spring cleaning, so Mason and I made a morning of it. We cleaned out all of the trash including stale Goldfish crackers, string cheese wrappers and McDonald's toys. Then, we used the super-mega sucking power of our shop vac to vacuum up the stale Goldfish cracker crumbs, dried string cheese and dirt from the carpet and seats.

Due to drought conditions, Georgia is still under water restrictions, so we are not allowed to wash our cars at home. Since the Country Club uses reclaimed water at the maintenance shop and on the golf course, we were able to take the Honda there for further spiffing. I washed with soap and Mason rinsed. I love that he's giving the hose and water the stink eye in this photo. Okay, so maybe the sun was really bright that day. It had been weeks since we had even seen it, so our eyes were sensitive.


His only restrictions were to not spray me and to not touch the hose to the car. That water was COLD and I didn't want paint scratches!


I think he was having fun experimenting with the water coming out of the hose. Getting wet is secondary, I think.





Twirling the water out of the hose was always my favorite too! I'm glad he was already wet, since we were headed to the water park afterward. Swimming lesson photos to come...stay tuned for part 2!

Jamaica, Mon...

"In a house, on a rock, in a bay, on a reef, on an island in Jamaica." The wonderful couple, Josh and Shari, got married at the Rock House in Negril, Jamaica. Heidi and I were fortunate enough to have been invited to not only photograph their wedding, but join in all of the fun that was planned as well! Such great hosts! They really did make us feel welcome and like part of the family.


The Rock House isn't located on the famous 7-mile beach, but on the cliffs of the Caribbean! There are spectacular views, caves and lots of places to be adventurous!


On my "to-do" list for my trip to Jamaica was snorkeling. This is quite an adventure to me – not because I'm afraid of the water, but because I get terrible motion sickness. I really did enjoy getting up close and personal with the aquatic life. I'm not sure how that sea cucumber felt about me man-handling it, but I assure you that I left it just as I found it. Squishy.


This was the largest sea star I had ever seen! I wanted to bring it home to Mason so badly, but we were not allowed to keep anything that we found along the way. Boo.


This is more flesh than any one person needs to see of me, but I decided to post it anyway. I didn't last much longer after this photo was taken (thanks Heidi). I think the snorkeling guide thought I was tired, but no...I had to get out of the water or I was gonna toss my cookies. Swimming in salt water is a breeze compared to swimming in fresh water, but all that movement didn't set well with my equilibrium.


I actually viewed this puffer fish from the inside of the boat. The snorkeling guide grabbed hold of this spiny guy and it puffed up to about the size of a softball!


I guess he wasn't happy about being man-handled. I will stick to sea cucumbers.