Love

I kept Harper home from daycare today, so I took this opportunity to play around with the camera. My brother in law knows a little about cameras and is trying to teach my about depth of field and other "photography" things. He looked at some of these pics and said I had successfully achieved depth of field. They are not the best pictures, but it's a start.

On another note, I discovered today that my daughter has learned a sign! We were eating ice cream (a perk of staying home with mom) and I asked her if she wanted some more. She made the sign for more and then opened her mouth awaiting her next bite. What a smart little cookie! There is a little girl at her daycare that uses some signs, I guess she's picked a few up from her. I was impressed and I am taking this opportunity to brag on my daughter : )

I was under the illusion that staunch independence and, at times, out right defiance would come at a later age. I'm beginning to understand that I have many misconceptions about childhood! Our latest battle is tooth brushing. She would be more than happy to brush her teeth, as long as we let her do it herself. I'm sure you can imagine a toddler attempting to brush her teeth. There is lots of brushing of the lips, crunching down on the toothbrush, and sucking the toothpaste off the brush. Very little "cleaning" actually occurs. To Harper, she is doing a fine job. According to me, this is still a task better left to Mom. I am going to record our next toothbrushing session so that the dentist can see one of two things; 1) that this twice daily task more resembles a UFC mixed martial arts match than a common hygenic practice, and 2)that there is evidence that I tried, tried to keep her teeth as clean as I could. I want video documentation in case there was something wrong with her teeth, it wasn't from lack of effort on my part.

Lost Treasure

While cleaning out our storage closet...something which I rarely do because I get overwhelmed with it all almost immediately... I discovered an unknown treasure. Apparently shortly before Brandon and I got married, he purchased a Canon Rebel camera. It's not the top of the line, newest addition, whatever....but to me, it's amazing! I've been lamenting the fact that I don't take nearly enough pictures of Harper, and that I used to really enjoying taking pictures, but didn't have a camera to do this with. So, imagine my excitement when I pulled this gem out of a box way in the back! Brandon maintains that I've known that he owned that camera forever and didn't want to use it because I don't know how to use it. He's half right. I don't really know how to use it. Sure, it has a "point and shoot" mode, which is fine, but I long for more! So, I'm slowing learning how to use the manual controls. When I was in high school, I wrote for the newspaper and we had to take our own pictures. I vaguely remember some things....but not enough. So, I'm searching You Tube for tutorials and venturing out to practice. I'm sure I'll never be fantastic, but I'll get good enough at it to make me happy. Hopefully.

Vacations yet to come...

After our recent excursion to Memphis, Brandon and I decided it was high time we took a proper vacation, just the two of us. We have decided on a camping trip the week of Christmas in beautiful and scenic Arizona. Yes, that's right, I say we're camping in December. My hunger for outdoor adventure and solitude has increased since living in the natural state. I have always said I wanted to write a book, and when I wrote my book I would find some far off, secluded natural setting to be alone, drink coffee and write. Who knows when that will happen! Anyway, we are still considering where we want to camp. Lake Havasu is at the top of our list, but we are still open to other possibilities. Who knows where we will end up!

Beale Street Blast

On Saturday we took the plunge...and by plunge, I mean we left Harper over night for the first time. I'd been looking forward to the trip, but dreading leaving her. I was sure she would fall to pieces and be upset the whole time. My, how wrong I was. We took her to our friends house and when it was time to say goodbye, I got watery eyed. I bent down, told Harper I loved her and said, "bye bye!" and she looked up at me and screamed, BYE!, smiled, and went back to playing with the cat. After that we headed down to Memphis to spend an evening on Beale St.! It was a blast! We walked around and looked at all of the crazy people on the street. We ended up at B.B. Kings. It was great fun, and nice to spend a night with my husband and friends. I go back to work on Wednesday, not excited.

Funk

I didn't do anything interesting today, in fact, I did the antithesis of interesting today...yes that's right, another teacher workshop!!! Two women that sat in front of me insisted on talking to each other the ENTIRE time! They weren't whispering either, they were talking at a normal volume. Most of their conversations consisted of criticisms of the instructors proposed methods and how they (because they went to grad school) know how to do it better. It was highly irritating. Just when I thought they couldn't annoy me any further, they outdid themselves in the afternoon. One of the women answered her phone and continued to speak to the caller for 5 minutes, all while the instructor is presenting. Someone finally got fed up with her and "shushed" her. Her response to this was to hang up her phone and say, out loud, "WHO SHUSHED ME??? THAT IS SOOO RUDE!" Really? You think that's rude?? You can't think of anything else going on that was RUDE??" At least I don't work with her.

Smells llike teen spirit...

A requirement for all teachers is to obtain 60 hours of professional development during the year. Sometimes this involves trips to conferences in exciting destinations like Las Vegas, San Diego, Seattle, etc. For me, however, my destination is the sprawling urban metropolis of Beebe, Arkansas. I'm pretty sure I saw a subway and a gas station on the way in, and yes, that is the end of the list of things I saw on my way into "town". I took a wrong turn on my way to the high school and began realizing I was headed in the wrong direction when I noticed that the only thing on either side of my car was grass and cows...and grass...and cows. I did eventually make it to my destination. I've heard it said that smell is one of the most powerful senses. The odor that I encountered when I stepped into Beebe High School was not one that sent my mind reeling into a sunny memory of my childhood...no...I had just one thought.... "this place totally smells like cat food". And it did, smell exactly like cat food, wet cat food to be exact. Lovely. It really set the tone for the entire day. Did you know there are 11 different kinds of addition problems?? Nope, I didn't either.