Inspired

So I have been feeling nostalgic this weekend so I have been reading through Rees' baby books. I can't believe how big of a boy his is in such a short period of time, things just fly bye seems like there is very little time to appreciate the little things. That's my "mid-year" resolution, might as well make one the new years resolution sure didn't work :( but I want to take a step back from things for a little while this summer and just enjoy my time with Rees. Before long he's going to be talking and grow even more independent, which I am having a hard time with to my surprise. I can't believe he won't even let me feed him anymore Aghhhh!!!!! I need to slow things down a bit and go back to my roots....SCRAPBOOKING! I love the whole documentation aspect of it but it's such a creative outlet which is what my whole life is about. I try to find creative ways to do absolutely everything like gardening, photography, picture editing, card making, cooking, entertaining you name it and I try my hardest to make it "my own" with my creativeness. I really think that's why I have fell head over heals in love with photography and editing because it lets me share my creativeness with others. But, in terms of working (Korner & Photography) I really want to step back for the summer and make it all about the family. His childhood is slipping by so quickly and that's the only thing that really matters to me. I can try and perfect my craft slowly and use Rees as my muse! LOL, we all know that will be a challenge! I have a 1 year old cake smash on Wed. and Senior pictures for a guy next weekend and after that I think I'm going to take a break. We'll see how that works out for me. It truly is a challenge for me to "sit idol" I love to know that I have something to do after Rees goes down for bed or is taking a nap but that also comes with the down side of deadlines for getting pictures ready for proofing and submitting orders and packaging for people so as much as I love it it really does take up a lot of time. So for the next few months I think I'll just do family and friends that are understanding of my plan.

But, back to my roots thing as I was looking through his baby books (which I put together 12x12 scrapbook pages of) I noticed that around X-mas time they started to dwindle down and ended in March. I haven't scrapped since! I can't believe that I really thought I would scrap for the rest of my life at least once a week. And now that I actually have something that is meaningful to scrapbook I quit doing it??? I'm crazy. I really want Rees to have these when he gets older to know how he was raised and how much we love and adore him. So that is part of my break and something that will definitely give me something to do during nap time (I could be cleaning house but what fun is that:) I got a start on this weekend...

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4th of July

We had a nice 4th we spent it with family and friends. We had a cookout at the farm and it was potluck so there was a lot of super yummy food. I ate until I was sick! Rees was a little stinker and wouldn't eat anything unfortunately as a mom (and dad) that really really really bothers us. I mean deep down I know that it's not going to kill him but it really breaks my heart when I can't get him to eat well. Back on subject, the kids all played and had a nice time, until it started to rain that dreary damp yucky misty rain. I would rather it poor down than do the misty stuff. So we headed home around 7 and we all went to bed at 9:30! Funny how your life changes when you become a parent! But I was beat, Mat has been sleep deprived for a couple weeks now, and Rees always goes to bed around 9. I really needed a good nights sleep! So that was our 4th.

River Rec Festivities

We ventured out as a family today (Me, Rees, Mom, Dad, & Abby) to go watch our cousin (Dylan Rees) play with his band at River Rec in town. Along the way to the stage Rees and dad got into some good stuff like games and we tried to get them to let us take Rees down the big slide on our lap but they said no. Rees was so amazed at all the stuff going on he didn't make a peep. He was really content just people watching. We made our way to the stage and there was another band playing...they were Terrible. Old folks trying to be cool and they were failing miserably. So this really made me a little nervous for Dylan because they sounded bad and weren't really moving much on the stage so I thought it might be the setup or something. I couldn't have been any more wrong. When Dylan and his band (Leighanne what is the band name again???) I can only remember the phrase on all the "groupies" t-shirts that said Haters can't touch us, which I LOVE! Anyways.... when they got up on stage you could tell it was going to be a really fun show to watch. They were jumping around and had cool clothes it was so much fun. We were all so glad we went and the next time he plays someone better tell me so I can be a Groupie because I really liked it! The Justin T. Song blew my mind I love the cool thing they did with their voices it was so neat. They plaid original songs, country, rock, new stuff it was just a very entertaining 1/2 hour! And...to beat all he plays the guitar, the keyboard and sings he has so much talent I'm so proud of my cousin! Sure makes me wish I could carry a tune. Check it out....

Is it really July...or April?

What is up with this funky weather? Every year on the 4th it's unbearably hot and muggy but now it's too cold to even swim. So weird. Makes me wonder what's going on in the ozone and all that good sciency stuff it's sort of scary how much our climate has changed over the past 10 years there has to be a reason and I'm sure it's not good.
Rees and I just ran around today. We went to see Grandma Rees at work then we went to Foodland at Spring Valley which is still Foodland YUCK! I just didn't feel like tackling Walmart around the 1st ya know, so I picked Spring Valley Foodland (Not smart either) but it was a quick trip just needed dinner supplies. Then we went over to Nana's to visit with old ma and Tricia for a while. Ma loves to watch Rees play around and he likes to put on a show for her as well. We had a nice visit and he ate a ton of roast (meat, usually if it's not chicken he won't eat it) so that made me Really Happy! It's funny how the small things mean so much and seem to be such big deals when your a parent. Or like when I hear him say Bye really low and sweet like when we leave as he's flipping his little wrists to waive goodbye it makes my heart melt. The tiniest things are so meaningful when your a parent. I have come to the conclusion that Rees has just got me in the palm of his hand these days. Don't get me wrong I do discipline him because I know it's in his best interest but it's things like laying in the floor playing with a book with all the pages ripped out for an hour. And, it's fun to me. He just melts my heart. Now that he is really verbal it has put a whole new "spin" on things. Everyday is so wonderful even if we just hang out and do nothing. I sound like a gushing mama I know but I never in a million years would have guessed that being a mom is this rewarding and fulfilling. Well enough ranting about me adoring my little man. I am having a lot of pain in my lower back today, not sure what it's from I had a headache this morning then my back started aching so bad this afternoon I can't wait to get to bed. I think I'm going to tackle the River Rec stuff tomorow my cousin Dillon is performing with his band and I really want to go watch that so I better go rest up.

It's July!!!

I'm not sure why I love July so much, but I get really happy every year when it rolls around. I usually have a big 4th of July cook out but last year since Rees was still a newbie I didn't do it and this year we decided to have it at the farm. Their shelter house is better equipped to handle a big crowd than my little patio is! And the pool will entertain the kiddos. It's sad but I think we're going to pass on fireworks this year too. Our little man can't stay up very late and I think he would just be p'd off to stay up till 10:30 to hear loud noises!!! That's what I'll tell myself anyways. Back to why I love July (my thought run a muck sometimes) Usually it's nice and sunny and perfect pool weather, and the flowers are in all their glory, my garden is in full swing which means its time to make pickles...then eat pickles and so on and so on. See there are tons of reasons why July is spectacular. I wish I could think of another place to take Rees for a day long trip. I just don't really think I'm ready for Kings Island or anything like that I was thinking something a little less crowded. If I've learned anything it's that the more people there are somewhere means the more hassle,headache, and waiting there is which you cannot explain to a one year old.

To bring July in "officially" on my computer I had to install a new desktop on my computer. Here's mine

If you want to get one click HERE and download it then pop your pictures in and save. then right click on it and select "save as desktop"

Columbus Zoo Trip

We had So much fun today. Abby wanted to start a little tradition for her and Rees to do every year so she came up with a zoo trip. Of course I wanted to go too so we loaded up today and took off! Rees was a complete angel, I could not believe it!!! I was expecting a little fit or two along the way but nada! He had a great time and the weather was perfect 70's with a breeze and no rain I'm so happy she came up with that and so glad we just took off and did it! No stress just complete fun! He was really interactive and paid some attention to the animals and ALOT of attention to all the other kids! He really enjoyed the amphibians the most..Yuck! He got to pet a snake (Abby had to take him to do that I can't deal with snakes!) and he had no hesitation he didn't want to leave it. But the zoo was really lively today most of the animals were all out and about being frisky so that was nice. Somehow me missed the giraffes and bears? Not sure were they were hiding the giraffe but we didn't see them :( So a big ol' thanks to Abby for going with us and being such an awesome aunt! It is a big undertaking to take a one year old anywhere so I really appreciate her enthusiasm about going to the zoo! Love ya sister!

I cannot stand Internet Explorer

Is there anyone that is still using IE??? I absolutely hate it, well my momma taught me never to say the word hate but I strongly DISLIKE it to say the least. I work on Firefox, I LOVE it so much. There are so many wonderfully life changing add ons (I am not exaggerating; if your on the internet as much as I am and use as many different pc's as I do it really does make a huge difference) Any who... I was sailing around on the net tonight and I decided I would check out my blog using IE to make sure everything looked okay, surprise surprise it DOES NOT look okay! Stupid IE must not recognize png files because around my signature and the sidebar titles I see a light blue block around them, on Firefox it doesn't. Just another reason it's on my crapper list.

On a serious note, I know I've harped about this before but people please for the love of god download Firefox at Mozilla and start using it! it is Soooo much better. I bookmark (add to favorites) almost everysite I visit seems like with FF you can sync them so that they are the same on all the computers you use. So I put all my business ones for the store and my scrapbook stuff, photography stuff yada yada yada but point is I can access them from any computer in the world! To me that's huge. I know I am beating a dead horse but seriously make the switch. Worses case scenerio you don't like it and you delete from your computer to go back to using that outdated, problem filled internet explorer :)

I don't know how to fix the blog so it appears right on IE, nor am I going to worry about it because I am never clicking on the "E" again! I wish I could delete it from my computer but Mat would have a heartattack, he opposes change so I just think I'll keep the "E" to avoid conflict...but I am never clicking it again! Take that microsoft..LOL! Night all, I feel much better since I got all that out!