Happy Thanksgiving...

...and we are not having turkey! Yes, you heard it here first – a family does NOT have to have turkey on Thanksgiving. This is especially true when yours truly is doing the cooking. I like turkey, don't get me wrong. However, you can't make just a little bit of turkey, so our family of 3 ends up eating turkey for a week. Bleck!

This year I decided to go against tradition and cook a standing rib roast. Translation: prime rib with the bones still in it. Yes, this type of meal is usually reserved for Christmas, but we are having guests for Christmas – meaning I can make a turkey and not have to eat it for a week. It's all about consumption, you know.

I still have a lot to do before Thanksgiving, despite the fact that it's only the three of us. Tonight I am making pumpkin cheesecake. A friend of mine got me into this delightful treat last year and I swore I would never eat pumpkin pie again. I also have to check my grocery list to make sure I have everything I am going to need to start cooking tomorrow! Wish me luck!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!! I hope you all get to spend the holiday with friends and family. More posts to come!

Madelyn Gosselin –

The television show, Jon and Kate + 8 is a guilty pleasure of mine. However, there is one 8 year-old annoyance that infuriates me every episode – Madelyn. Don't let this cute little face fool you:

...she is an absolute terror. She has a temper tantrums that would send me into a frenzy of suitable punishments like pairing socks or cleaning out the bathtub drain of soapy hair.

I am always amazed at Kate's patience with Madelyn despite her impatience with so many other things! God bless her and Jon, because if she were mine...that little bottom would have been sitting in time-out for over half her life!

5 Things I Already Miss About Summer:

1.) Unrestricted blood flow to my extremities
2.) Daylight after 4:30 p.m.
3.) Little bare feet running on a Florida beach
4.) Weekend festivals in Downtown Atlanta
5.) Not being a slave to a school schedule

These are in no particular order...what do YOU miss about summer?

A seemingly innocent pile of leaves...minding its own business, relaxing on our lawn.


A seemingly innocent 5 year old boy...adding friends to the seemingly innocent pile of leaves...minding its own business, relaxing on our lawn.


Oh NO! Save us! We're being attacked...


...by a boy, a man and their dog!


They seem to be getting great pleasure out of squishing all of my leafy friends!


Thank goodness, one of them got up! Run for it!!! The little one is returning...


...a seemingly innocent boy, relaxing on a seemingly innocent pile of leaves...both relaxing on our lawn.

Tree Hugger:

Our neighbor, Alex, has the most beautiful maple tree in her yard. Each year we have lived in our townhouse, I have looked forward the fall when the leaves change to bright yellow and orange.


Okay, so this year, the leaves were mostly yellow than orange...but still very very pretty!




Despite the smile on his face, Mason was not pleased to be up in that tree. I'm sure he will be in therapy later in life because of it. Just know, sweet boy, that I did it because I love your beautiful face...especially in a tree!

Welcome One and All!

I got very excited today when I checked my Google Analytics reports and saw that people have been stopping by! Not only have people been stopping by, but people that I don't know have been stopping by. Sweet!

People from 26 different countries have been stopping by! Thank you for stopping by...come back and play again sometime people!!!

Imagine...

...if the city of Atlanta got rid of all of the graffiti! Shots like this would not be quite as interesting. Thanks Jen and Rich (and Chako) for being good sports! I love this shot!

In Cast You Didn't Know...

I found this to be quite interesting. Seeing the states colored according to political affiliation really puts this election in perspective – to see how close could actually turn out to be!

No surprise here. Georgia is a notoriously Republican state. Again, WAY closer than I thought it would be in a notoriously Republican state.

Just For Fun...

Welcome to Hoschton, Georgia...

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of photographing a friend of mine and her husband in Braselton, GA – about an hour north of Atlanta. On the way to the location, we drove through Hoschton and there were scarecrows EVERYWHERE! At first, I thought they were a little creepy, but then quickly realized they were probably all there for a reason.

Hoschton, GA set a Guinness record for the most scarecrows in one place. Their goal was 4,000 scarecrows...and they ended up with 5,441!!! You can read the article here: (click here).

Although our weekdays are usually filled with regularly scheduled activities such as homework, bath time and reading; we thought it would be fun to take a break from our routine and drive up to Hoschton to see the scarecrows. As you can see, Callie goes with us nearly everywhere that we can take her. Here we are at the golden arches for a quick on-the-go supper.


I'm not sure why Callie was sniffing Mason...perhaps she thought he smelled like french fries.


So, Bear goes with us nearly everywhere as well.


No, my photos are not out of chronological order. Mason and Callie fell asleep ON THE WAY to see the scarecrows. I guess work and school tucker them both out.


We finally arrived in Hoschton after fighting rush hour traffic (my bad!). I never knew Mason was so good at climbing fences...


...but up and over he went. I was there to help him, but Mason assured me that he could do it himself. I sometimes forget that he's not a baby any more...but that is another blog post.





Each scarecrow was tagged with an official "Guinness Book of Records" tag with its own number on it. We didn't view even one quarter of the scarecrows that were up around town.


After safely scaling the fence, Mason had a good time looking at many scarecrows up close.


He had a good time posing for photos and climbing up and down the fence time and time again.





I have never known him to ham it up for the camera before, but I was loving it, of course!


The sweatshirt he was wearing made him blend right in with these scarecrows. A veritable "Where's Waldo".


Hoschton received a lot of criticism for doing something as frivolous as setting a world record for the most amount of scarecrows instead of giving back to charity or feeding the hungry. I think sometimes you just have to have fun with something and if that something brings a community together...I'm all for it! Besides, how else is a small town supposed to gain publicity for their annual Fall Festival? Thank you citizens of Hoschton for bringing a little fun into my otherwise routine weekday!

In a Galaxy Far Away...

Okay, so the Eiffel Tower isn't in a galaxy far, far away; but this photo was taken, what seems like, a lifetime ago.

My first semester at community college, I had an instructor that was putting together an educational tour in Europe. I had never been and it seemed like an amazing adventure! Art, culture and out of Missouri. What more could a girl ask for?

We started in Amsterdam where everything under the sun is legal. It was a bit of a culture shock, but the museums and the beer were fantastic!


After the Netherlands, we traveled to Germany. This photo was taken in Koln, Germany. The cathedral is way more beautiful in person, despite the restoration project that was going on while we were there.

Our group traveled from Germany to Paris and from Paris to England. London is where I fell in love with public transportation. Ah, the subway – what a lovely break that would be from Atlanta traffic!

Leave it to P-Dub:

I love the Pioneer Woman's blog. I read it every single day. I look forward to her new blog posts and recipes. Now and then, she has blog posts that just make me laugh...and today she wrote about a webisite called yearbookyourself.com. In a word: hil.ar.i.ous!

Here is me in the 1960s. Oddly, it isn't too much unlike the hairstyle I have now – minus the teasing and hair spray.

Holy "One Day at a Time" Batman! Come on, sing it with me! You know the words!!!


Ah, the 80s. Wow, that hair is poofy. How much more of a fire hazard could I be?


Just when I thought I couldn't be ANY MORE of a fire hazard! Geez...and this hair-don't isn't far off from what my hair looked like for my ACTUAL senior photos. Good thing I don't have any of those just lying around!

Goof off at work for a minute...I won't tell! Click here!

My son...

...will certainly hate me later in life for this one.

Google Analytics is Watching You...

I want to give a special thanks to my friend, Ben, who introduced me to Google Analytics. Although I am aware that people are visiting my blog, it's kind of fun to see the actual statistics. It's interesting to see the jump in visitors after I post something new. It's even more interesting to see a jump in visitors when I haven't posted anything new.




This tells me where you're all coming from. Most of my visitors are repeat offenders (yes, by offender I mean you visit and don't post a comment. Tisk.). This pie also tells me that most of you are coming from other blogs where my link is posted. Thanks for the curiosity...keep it up!


















Absolute strangers are looking at my blog, too. In another page, there is a statistic that tells me that there have been visitors from 7 countries. Did they stumble on me by accident...probably. Nonetheless, they were here! That might explain the comment I got from the "Are You Serious?" post earlier in the week.

It's Almost Here...

Halloween is coming soon! I look forward to it ALL year...it is, of course, the only day of the year you can be whatever you want and not catch any slack about it.

I had been asking Mason what he wanted to be for Halloween for a couple of weeks. I do this 1.) because he's 5 and indecisive, and 2.) because if you don't get your costume ordered or picked out, you don't get to be what you want. Well, we received a Pottery Barn catalog in the mail last week and on the cover was this FABULOUS shark costume. Yes, you read it...FABULOUS! Photos really do this costume no justice.


These are the faces I get any time I take Mason's photos. Is it a boy thing, a Mason thing or just a 5-year old thing? At least he looks like a scary shark.


You must be thinking, "Pottery Barn? She must have paid a fortune for this Halloween's costume." Nay...I did not! I have a friend that works at Pottery Barn and, to those of you that don't know about this benefit, they receive a 40% discount and are always willing to share. See, now you're thinking, "Holy cow! What a great costume...and she got it for a STEAL!" This is the treat bag. I figure, I am already saving a small fortune on this costume...it may as well be complete.


Wowzers...what a scary face!


It only took me tickling him and threatening the biggest zrbert of his life to get this face. Happy Halloween! Pumpkin patch photos to come...stay tuned...

Garden Festival – New Life Academy Style

Fund raising doesn't always have to be a drag! There were a lot of activities for the children...

...face painting (always a hit)

...paint a flower pot

...paper butterflies

...and the whole reason for the "garden" theme! Each grade level planted plants and seeds in their planter boxes. They were asked about what plants need to survive and got to get their hands dirty.

The food that is produced by the school will be donated to a local food bank. The school really hit the nail on the head with this project...not only are the children learning about taking care of something, but also how to give back to the community.

Chef Brian enjoyed grilling hot dogs and getting to know some of the other parents.

A Nintendo Wii was raffled...what a great prize!

...and of course, Mason had a blast!