Rainiers v. Knights

Our little Rainiers played their first official game last weekend against their cross town rivals, the Knights.

I'm just kidding.  They'd never even met the Knights and didn't know any of the kids on that team.

They played their little petuties off, though.

Two things I love about this one. 

1.  The tongue sticking out.  So cute.
2.  What is she looking at?  We might have to work on following the ball.

Sometimes it helps to talk it over with the coach.  She always knows.

COACH:  Who's getting that ball?
HIM:  I am!
HER:  I am!
THE OTHER HER:  I am!
THE OTHER HIM:  Wait for me.  I'm on my way.  I can get it!

I'm telling you....it can get seriously rough out there.

Unless no balls are coming even remotely your way.  Then it can get kind of boring.

Playing 3rd base can also get a little.....tedious.

Sadly, the Little Miss won't get to play in this week's game.  Doctor's orders.

Don't know what we'll do instead.....Oh!  Wait.  I know!

BEACH!!!!!

Check ya' later.  Bye!

Project 52 ~ Week 17 {Princess for a Day}

I have a confession to make.  I am a royal watcher.

No....wait.  I'm not a royal watcher, I'm a princess watcher.  I could give a flying fig about the Queen and all the princes (unless it involves Helen Mirren, in which case I think it's brilliant), but I have a huge diamond-encrusted, tiara-wearing soft spot for a princess.  Especially a British princess.

It all started with Lady Diana Francis.  I can hardly even say that without putting on some kind of pathetic excuse for an English accent.  Lady Diahnah Frahncisss.  I loved her.  I followed her every move from that infamous racy, black, taffeta evening gown she wore when she was 19 (Hello!  Nineteen!?!), to her equally infamous flub of her husband's name during their wedding, to her kicky haircut that looked ridiculous on me but which I refused to give up on, to the terrible headlines that I couldn't stop crying over when she died.  She was my Elvis.  My Marilyn.  My John Lennon.  She changed my world....Amen.

And yes, I do plan to watch her son get married to a new British lovely.  I will be up at 1:00 on Friday morning to watch Matt and Meredith draw out every, single, diamond-encrusted, tiara-wearing moment of it.  I admit that it can, at times, be over the top and outrageous, but there is so much turmoil going on in the world today.  Isn't is nice to take a break with something so nonsensical and extravagant?  I mean, why worry about rising gas prices when you can take a moment and wonder what the dress is going to look like?  Never fear.  The turmoil will all still be there when they ride their glass carriage away into the fairy tale and we all return to real life.

I do have a point to all this.  Bear with me.  Here it is.

Some of the moderators for my Project 52 are from England.  Do I need to explain more or do you get it?

Okay....they saw it only fitting that the image theme for this week, the week of all weeks second only to the last week of July in 1981 (when Diana married Charles....are you seeing it?), be Princess for a Day.  Dot to dot to dot...and there it is.  Connection between my ramblings of princess love and this image are finally made.

I do have a couple of other things.

First of all, this image only took six shots to get, and amazingly, this was the first one.  I also loved the last one (seen below).

I liked that you could see more of him, and that her hand was on his arm, but decided on the first one because I loved the point of her toe in that image (go back and take a look if you don't remember.  It's really a perfect toe point, and maybe worth another look.)

Although, if I'd thought about it, I'd have probably had her up on her tiptoe, like she was reaching for him.  I didn't think of it at the time because they are actually the same height, and she didn't have to reach, so I didn't think of it.  Hindsight's always 20/20, right?  I digress.

My kids helped me out with this, of course, and even though it bought him out of his usual requirement of reading, my son wasn't really all that enthusiastic.  So, I had to play around a bit more with just my Little Miss to make sure that I really had the image I wanted.

I decided that it wasn't this one.

I loved this boot shot, but it just didn't feel as lovely...Can you tell I have a thing for photographing shoes and feet?  They just really tell the whole story, don't they?  You can always fake a face, but you just can't fake the shoes....

And this just felt a little too....I don't know....obvious.

My last thought on all this is that if Little Miss is the princess does that mean I've finally made it up to Queen?

I'm just saying.....

Cheers!


View the entire Project 52 collection

Sidewalk Chalkin'

I picked up a container of sidewalk chalk from the dollar section at Target the other day.

Hello, Dollar Bin? This is Lisa.  I love you!!!  And I know that you love me, too, because you always have just what I need, and a lot times, tons of things that I don't. 

I could spend $100 just at the dollar bin.  I buy everything there.  Flip-flops.  Notepads.  Measuring cups.  Who cares if it's junk and won't last the month?  It's a dollar.  How do you not love that?  It's also a great way to play down how much I spend at that store during each trip.

HIM:  "Why did you get all this stuff?"

ME:  "It was only a dollar."

HIM:  "Oh....okay, then...."

Anyway....I got this sidewalk chalk.  I'd been promising my daughter an afternoon at the park for a few days, and the rain finally gave way late last week.  I was kind of surprised how many kids came crawling out of the bark to play once she popped the top and started drawing.

Okay....so there's no chalk in this one, but, I like it anyway.  I might want to wear those boots...and that skirt.

 

My son, of course, was too busy catching bugs to care about such ridiculous things as chalk flowers and rainbows....I mean, I know he's a boy and all, but sometimes just how much of a boy he is completely shocks me. (And P.S....see that teeny, tiny, little black dot on the upper left corner section of the shot?  Get a magnifying glass if you need.  See it?  Yup...that's the bug.)

I hope you can take a little time to relax today and do some sidewalk chalkin', too.

Or bug catching.  Whatever you fancy.

Hugs!

Easter Blessing

I've been thinking a lot this weekend about the holiday, more specifically, about the meaning of the holiday. 

Prince Charming and I had been running around for a couple of days planning out our dinner and what we were going to put in the baskets.  We had to get eggs to dye and treats to hide.  Do we really need to buy more plastic eggs?  Do we really want to do the powder "bunny dust" again?  It was all a hullabaloo.

I was standing at the sink on Saturday night doing dishes when our yard man stopped by to talk to my husband about something going on with the lawn.  When he left, Prince Charming wished him a Happy Easter.  Our yard man is from Mexico and doesn't speak very good English, so he wasn't too sure what he was hearing.  My husband put up two fingers on each hand and held them up behind his head.

"You know, Easter," he said.  "Bunny.  Hop hop."

"Oh, yaah, yaah....," replied the yard man kind of waving his hand like what he really wanted to say was, "I think I've seen that commercial.  Weird..."

 
And it struck me, as I stood there scraping plates, that here we were planning out this big elaborate candy-filled extravaganza, complete with a new Wii game, a Fairy Secret doll, and a big prime rib dinner, and this guy basically didn't know what we talking about.  What were we doing here?

The question kind of rolled around in my head some.  Then, while we were watching the baseball game on TV, the announcers were talking about having all of their Easter finery pressed and ready for the morning.  And it struck me again.  This is a holiday that has nothing to do with chicks and eggs and chocolate bunnies, and everything to do with our civilizations belief in a story from the Book of Matthew.  It's about church and prayer.  It's about the Bible.  And for a lot of people, it's about new clothes and pretty dresses and bonnets and new shoes.  When I was a shoedog at Nordstrom, Easter was only second to the start of school in terms of people buying shoes for their kids.  Church on Easter morning.

I've never really been a very religious person.  I've never really gone to church.  Truth be told, I more consider myself part of the congregation of the Church of the Sunday Paper.  I know that I believe in the power of God, but I really don't know or understand the history of God.  I have a Bible.  Two actually.  One is newer and was given to me by my parents when I graduated from high school, I think.  The other is quite old and belonged to my great-grandmother.  She read it cover to cover hundreds of times over the course of her life.  She cherished it.  She believed in it.  She lived it.  She used it to record the births and deaths and those she loved, including her husband and one of her daughters.  It is an heirloom in my family, that I'm sure one of my brothers would gladly Indian wrestle me for.  And yet, it sits on the shelf over my bed, nestled in between my photography manuals and the latest novels I'm working through, and I most often forget that it's there.

Being that it was Easter, and I was feeling so conflicted about the meaning of what were doing, I decided to pull it down and read the Easter story.  I had to start by Googling "Easter Story" to find out exactly where it was in the book.  I've read the Christmas Story before.  I remember how powerful it seemed and that it made me cry when I read the actual words "for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior.  'Tis Christ the Lord."  But the Easter story is...very short.  Very meaningful, but not nearly as impactful.  If you blink, you could miss it.

As I read over it and over it, both in my head and out loud to Prince Charming, I was struck at how entire religions, and millions of people all over the world, both now and throughout history, have based so much of themselves on three little words...He is risen.

I kind of felt like the Grinch, standing with my feet ice cold in the Seattle rain.  Puzzling and puzzling.  It's not about bunnies.  It's not about chocolate.  It's not about plastic grass or colored eggs or new toys....or even new shoes.  It's much more than that.  I can't even begin to wrap my head around how much more it truly is, and it's amazing how it can mean such a completely different thing.

I'm not done with this exploration yet.  I have a lot more to think about and mull over.  I may pray.  I may read some more.  I may start another discussion with my husband and children.  But for now, I'd just like to say

May the blessings of Easter be with you this day and every day.

Love you guys,

Lisa

Flower of the Month

I go back and forth on my favorite flower.  Sometimes it's pink Gerbra daisies.  Sometimes it's bright, yellow sunflowers.  I do like roses, but I'd take a daffodil over those any day of the week.

But from April 1st until the 30th, my favorite flora has to be tulips....especially if they're at Roozengarde.

This Week In Baseball

Gearing for the big start of the season this weekend.  Everyone's in the full "swing" of practice.

 Such cuteness on the T-Ball field, I almost can't even stand it. 

They haven't quite learned yet how to stay in position.  Any time the ball gets hit, it's really just up for grabs...

Those older boys, though.  Jeez oh man!  They mean business.

There's nothing cute about it.

Except, of course, when it's my kid.  Then it's really cute.  I mean, isn't it sweet how he's running it out?

This kid, however cute, did, in fact, have some serious business with that T-Ball stand, though.  Serious business.

I really do love taking their pictures while they're working, but sometimes I just like to sit back and watch.  They do amaze me....

But, this was just too...well, you know....I mean a High-5 from someone's dad while you're rounding 3rd base?  Come on!  If they did that in the majors, I'll bet every team would have a lot more fun....

Happy Baseball, everyone!

Love, Love.

L.