YOU GUYS ROCK!!

9:17 PM Posted In Edit This 11 Comments »






OMG!! I just want to say THANK YOU so much for everyone who has and is still voting for my photo during this contest!! The last time I checked, I was ranked all the way up to 28 - (It fluctuates daily) out of over 3,600 entries and ya'll have sent me 149 votes!! Thank you Thank you Thank YOU!! (So you know you can vote like every day right?) Heeheee!! I'm seriously crossing all my fingers and toes for this one! Even my GRANDMOTHER is voting and passing the link to her own friends in her emails!!!

Anyhow - thank you all so much for supporting me!!

HELP ME DECIDE!!

10:09 AM Posted In Edit This 14 Comments »

The time has again come for me to start choosing which of my photos I want to enter into the fair. These two are my final two picks for the "special effects" category, but I can't decide for the life of me which one I like best. They both have good points, but I just don't know.....


The top photo I just took into photoshop and removed color out of everything but the butterfly. It was a digital photo to start with, so not really a hard thing to do - the hardest part was capturing the photo. This bottom photo however was taken on black and white film. I used another black and white negative to "sandwich" with the photo of Journey, and created the image in the darkroom. Then I scanned it in, made some contrast adjustments, and colorized it. Of the two - it was definitely the most work. The problem with that is that the judges will never know how much work went into the second picture vs the first, so it really is just about the end result itself. Heeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllp!!

Which one??

I have also entered another photo contest in the running for $1000 - if you want to help me win VOTE HERE!! I would totally use the money for a new camera body, and a print making class at the college. Thank you for your support!

FOR AUNT SISSY - THE BUTTERFLY BLOGGER

8:29 PM Posted In Edit This 2 Comments »

OH MY GAWD!! Remember the tiny little caterpillars that I thought might be butterflies, but due to my past experiences with fuzzy worms, I figured would just end up being little garbage worms?? OOOOOOO they ARE butterflies!! Now I don't care if they are just pretty moths or what people choose to call them - to me they are beautiful!! Today I watched them all hatch out of their cocoons and fly away....


This little one crawled right out of his home, onto my hand, and right onto the end of my lens cap!! It's like he was saying "Take my picture now!!" He was still all wet and couldn't even fly yet. These bugs really are such sweet little creatures. Aunt Sissy - now I totally know how you feel when you have to set one free! It was so awesome to watch!


I guess this one just didn't want to leave home. He flew off of my hand and sat right on the garage wall. Now all of them are sitting nicely in the sunflowers, waiting for the rains that finally came to stop!! Needless to say, my kids were in awe of the whole process, from tiny little caterpillar, to a pretty little butterfly!

So now on to other news and questions..... I need some help finding good acne products. I have tried all the usual teeny bopper ones, and they just don't work for my old self. Do you have a favorite? Any suggestions? Lemme know - puhlease!

NO AIR, NO RAIN EITHER....

7:18 PM Posted In Edit This 0 Comments »

It's all cloudy here and lots of lightning going off everywhere, but still no rain for us yet. I'm just waiting for it to get dark to see if I can catch any good lightning shots! Besides my fascination with the electric sky, I have another good reason to be looking at my life insurance rates. I went to an art show out of town the other day, and almost flipped my truck. I had a few passengers along for the ride, and I think they were silently peeing their pants too. I'm going to the same town in the morning to see the Ansel Adams exhibit, only this time I will know the exact spot on the highway I need to be really super duper careful on......

A LITTLE PIECE OF CANADIA!!

12:10 PM Posted In Edit This 5 Comments »

When I went to Canada last year, Mackey showed me a lot of stuff that we can't get here in the states. Candy seems to be so different for some reason and one of the things I loved was the Aero candy bar. So I'm walking through the grocery store - AND THERE IT WAS!! We have a little bit of Canada in Kansas!!!

WEIRD NOT WEIRD....

8:42 AM Posted In Edit This 5 Comments »

More garden weirdness. I don't know why this flower seems so.... happy. I don't understand what is happening in my garden, but at least everyone seems to be in a super good mood! I just hope this one stays away from my squash......

AND THE WINNER ISSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.........

12:52 PM Posted In Edit This 2 Comments »
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Rest assured that none of my kids knew what name went to what blogger. I believe in total fair play. So our soon to be giant pumpkins' name izzzzzzzzz BOBBIE!! Congrats to MACKEYDOODLE on picking the name the kids liked the most - cuz it sounds like BOOBIE, which is what the pumpkin looks like to them!! :)


Though MackeyDoodle won the popular vote, I also had my own favorite! I thought the MOST CREATIVE post was that of SASSY!! She wrote the most awesome poem all about my lovely girl! So Sassyfrass, you too will be getting a basket-o-goodies from me as well!!
Thanks to everyone who played along with our little punkin naming contest and congrats to the winners!! Please send me your guys' mailing addy's cuz I write things down on way too many pieces of paper and they get lost......

TEENAGERS SCARE THE LIVIN SHIT OUTTA ME

7:11 AM Posted In Edit This 4 Comments »

This week has been completely INSANE around our house. My oldest came home from work the other day with a used truck. Her bio-dad was with her of course and said he was going to buy it for her. I looked at it and went "uhhhhh - it's a dodge." He said ohhh but it's a 1999 and it only has 100,000 miles on it!! From there I flipped out and and he flipped out. He thought it was a steal at $5000, I thought it was a piece of crap that would make it down the road twice and fall into a heap of twisted metal. Not to mention it had a 318 V8 and our daughter has no need for that kind of power on the road. I tend to think more about things and he tends to be the one who just does things without thinking at all. I asked him who was going to pay for the car insurance? I sure can't afford to put her on mine!! Who is going to pay for ALL THAT GAS?? Her little job couldn't do it. In that truck she'd be working just to pay for gas to get to work. So the big fight ensued and the ex nearly ran me over in the truck, tires squalling and passenger door wide open as he drove away screaming at me. Now Halie is mad at me because she wanted that truck.
I really thought I had taught her better than that....

PUMPKIN PROGRESS...

8:08 AM Posted In , Edit This 6 Comments »

So here is what she looks like this morning, all plumpy and beautimous!! She is now almost 35 1/2 inches around!! That's a growth of about 2 1/2 inches in just a few days!!


I have given her a blankey now, to keep her protected from the sun so she won't ripen so fast. I am a little worried that she has already turned too orange. Last night I went out and trimmed away most of the extra vines and made sure there were no other fruits trying to grow and take away her food. All is well in pumpkin land!! Now she just needs a NAME!!

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A BULLFROG?

2:15 PM Posted In Edit This 2 Comments »

First time in my whole life I have ever seen one in real life!! He was sooooooo incredibly loud with his croak too - more like a hummy kind of growl. I can't believe such a little thing can be so loud actually. As frogs go though he was HUGE!!! All I have ever seen around here up till now was toads. Big fat bumpy toads. These big frogs, I think people eat their legs. Gross.

I told ya'll I was easily amused. Nature is so cool....

Don't forget the PUNKIN NAMIN CONTEST!! (C'mon - just play!)

AS THE PUMPKIN GROWS.....

11:54 AM Posted In , Edit This 9 Comments »

This morning, my sweet little punkin is a moderate 33 inches in diameter!! I think she really liked the rains we had over the weekend, and I am hoping she will continue to do well!

I have decided that to be fair, my children will choose the coolest name for her out of all the names submitted, and that will make the CONTEST fair, as they won't know what name came from who! So - don't forget to SEE THIS POST and drop your idea for a cool name for my soon to be giant punkin!! Next Sunday, I will give my kids the list of names from everyone who participated and post the winner!!


In other news - I have once again stolen Mackey's chicken...... Mwaaaaaahaahaahaaahaaaaaaaaaa!!

GARDEN MYSTERIES AND NAME THE PUMPKIN!!

1:16 PM Posted In Edit This 8 Comments »

Not only do I have mutant tomatoes, I now have yellow squash spooning in my garden. I swear I have not been having relations with the summer squash - only the pumpkins....


This here is my beautiful punkin!! I haven't measured her diameter yet, but yesterday I went out and gave her a nice massage and turned her a little bit. She had squash bugs around her, so I had to resort to the sevin dust to save her life. I fed her some nice minerals and vitamins, and even a little bit of milk. She seems quite happy now. I need to give her a name though, and I just can't figure out a good one.....

Sooooo it is contest time!! Here's whatcha gotta do:
Write a short post about this post and include the link to this post in your post. (Confuse you yet?) Then leave a comment here telling me what you think we should name this soon to be giant punkin!! I will pick the winner who shall get a goodie gift basket packed full of suprises from me!!

Oh yeah - the pumpkin is a GIRL!! :)

AUNT SISSY AUNT SISSY!!! WHAT ARE THESE??

6:29 PM Posted In , Edit This 3 Comments »

Well, I successfully completed the foreclosure on these little guys' home, as it was the patch of giant sunflowers I have growing right beside my porch. My Auntie is a Butterfly Lady, so I am waiting for her to tell me if these are butterflies. I dread she will say no, and almost hate to think that they might be the tent caterpillars I thought were butterflies at Mackeys' house last summer. Gosh - maybe I carried some home in my suitcase as much as the kids and I were playing with them. I was very sad to hear that they turned into ugly moths, and not the pretty bugs I was hoping for. Soooooo AUNT SIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSYYYY!! Are these maybe the black swallowtails??? Whatever they are - they were eating my sunflowers FAST!!

SOMEONE SPILLED NUCLEAR IN MY GARDEN

9:17 AM Posted In , Edit This 5 Comments »

Maybe where my garden is, there used to be a super secret scientific laboratory with potions and monkeys and little rats running on a treadmill.....
I dunno either. But I pulled this tomato out of the garden and it is actually fused together. On the back side you can see the skin is all one tomato, and here on the front side it just looks like two of them sitting on top of each other. But they aren't. It only has the one stem. Weird.
What is even weirder are the curly Q cucumbers and the green beans that are almost a foot long. I swear I only used a little bit of miracle grow on them. My weird pumpkins are acting strange too. There were three good sized ones set on the vine. The one at the top and the one at the bottom both died, and the one in the middle is now bigger than my head. I mean it's supposed to be an all - but that sucker grew FAST! So maybe it wasn't a science lab - but what if it was like an Indian compost pile? The possibilities are so endless.....

LEARNING TO SEW....

12:23 PM Posted In , Edit This 6 Comments »


Well, here is the outfit for Riley so far! Of course my mother made the top, because I am nowhere near ready for those yet. I however did make the shorts, and all I have left to do is sew on the ribbons at the bottom. Sew - whaaddaya think? I wish they made some kind of really simple children's book on how to sew, so I could read it to myself, then teach the kids. It would make my learning MUCH easier. I have a really hard time following written directions, and these patterns make my head hurt. I'm not giving up though, I figure making shorts is a pretty good start, and I love this little outfit. (Now to get mom to make a couple more shirts! :)

THE GRANDE FINALE!!

9:27 AM Posted In , Edit This 6 Comments »

My favorite one right up there. Even though it's just a row of trees, at least I finally got a background with the fireworks pictures this year! These were taken at our cities "Hutchfest" celebration. We parked so close to the place they were being shot off, that flaming pieces of debris were actually hitting us in the head!


To me - this one looks like a flower growing in the grass! They had another one go off in the shape of a heart! It was too cool for words!


This year - I have had horrible luck it seems. Broken washers and dryers, hail damage to everything, lost mail, and personal issues out the wazoo. BUT I sure had GOOD LUCK with the fireworks photographs!! Heeeheeeeeeee! I had me a blast like no other celebrating the holiday close to family and friends.
My oldest baby girl Halie even got some fireworks shots of her own - and they are EXCELLENT!! I will put them up later after she has time to write her own post. Talk about making a mother proud!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

12:01 AM Posted In Edit This 6 Comments »

FIREWORKS AT HOME!! YEHAWWW!!

8:47 AM Posted In Edit This 5 Comments »
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Halie came home from work yesterday with this gigantic explosive. Her bio-dad bought it for her at a stand out by Inman, Kansas for FIFTY BUCKS! I was like OMG - that is a LOT of cash for ONE boomer. My shock turned to impatience as we all sat around waiting for it to get dark so we could light it. If you watch the video, I think you will love it just as much as we did! LOL!

Tomorrow we are headed either to the fairgrounds for the city show, or we may even venture over to Sterling, Kansas for theirs. Gas went up again so we aren't really sure what we are going to do. Whatever it is, I will be hauling my camera equipment with me and hopefully getting some nice shots!

HAPPY 4th YA'LL!!
August 2008
June 2008