I shan't go to work....

I have a sign on my garden shed that reads

"I shan't go to work today.... my hollyhocks are blooming"

I would have hundreds of hollyhocks if I would let them grow.  I pull them out like weeds but many of them grew this year and started blooming but I still dug them up (while blooming.... insert gasp) on Saturday and threw them away..... I still have lots of hollyhocks growing in places where they shouldn't be.  Now I'm really not liking the hollyhocks but I deal with it, thinking when they are done blooming I am digging every single one of the up and throwing them away.  I'm done with hollyhocks!!!

So now Tuesday morning I get an e-mail from my neice and this is all it says 

"Connie, your hollyhocks are BEAUTIFUL".  

I sent her back a reply and gave her a piece of my mind, yep I told her where the bear ____ in the woods.......I guess I won't be throwing them away after all....... okay they are very, very pretty and make a huge statement in the gardens, why won't they behave? 

The magic of e-mail

Tonight I drove up north to meet Katie and Steve.  I haven't meet them before but felt like we've known each other for months..... the magic of e-mail.   I grabbed a few shots while we chatted,  I can't wait to share your wedding day with you.  

 

2, 3, and soon 4

There were 2 people that fell in love, got married and started a beautiful life together.....

they added a little girl which made 3 ....

And in 2 weeks (or sooner) this family will become 4.

Good luck and thanks for a wonderful night.  We love you all!!

Another lake = More photos

Another nice day another trip to another lake. 

I would love to bring these lilly pads home to my little pond.

Sneak Peek + Miss A

Miss A and her mom spent a little time with me today.  Miss A is such a happy baby and was a joy to spend my morning with.   John and I even got a little snuggle time after she was done.

Mommy wanted a few of her and Miss A, my favorites are the ones that freeze the love between them. 

For my good friend "Laurie" and Beautiful "Yellow"

John and I are headed off to the musical tonight, my good friend Laurie produced the play, which meant many lunch hours where she had to ditch us for erronds, meetings, and everything else that kept her hopping over the past weeks (we forgive you) and Megan who is my cousins daughter is of course "Yellow".  The play is "Shout, The Mod Musical" and I can't wait to see it.   John doesn't normally go to the plays with me but since Megan is in this one he asked if I would not go with the girls and go with him.  How can I turn that offer down?  Megan used to come to our house and sleep on our couch until her Mommy came to pick her up every night after work.  I don't really remember how long we did that for but Megan has always had a special place in our hearts.   

I've heard so many good things about the performance last night so if you have time they are performing again tonight and Saturday night...... very worth your time and from what I hear they guys will even like it. 

Break a Leg Girls

Megan you are georgeous.

Wildflowers

Don't Mess with the Goalie

Oh she's a mean goalie, ain't no balls getting through her.   Elly moved up a year in soccer so they have real refs, have more rules and use the whole soccer field this year.  This is one tired little girl when they get done but she still likes to chat on the field.  Last night she's the only one you hear and she's talking to the boys which I'm sure are wishing she would shut up.  And she's still the nurse making sure anyone who falls down is okay.  She's still dang cute in her little soccer shirt and shin guards.

Watch where you step

We go for a Jeep ride tonight and decide to visit a few beaches in the area since it's a nice night.  The first beach I have not been to for a long, long time.  I used to spend many of my teenager years on this beach, as a matter of fact I skipped school one day with some friends and spent the afternoon swimming.  Funny story to go along with this beach skipping day.  We couldn't all not come to school because then the teachers would know we were skipping and call our parents so some of us didn't go at all and the others signed out at different times through out the morning.  Meanwhile those of us that didn't go to school had to hang out somewhere and not be seen by the eyes in the back of our parents heads.  So we tried to break into our brothers apartment - No such luck, we made lousy robbers, we couldn't get the window open and if we did I'm not sure who we were gonna shove through there and not alert the neighbors of something fishy going on.  Hummmm now where could we hide, my cousins and I were pretty creative when it came to hiding during a skip day.  We hid in the car wash with the doors pulled down, left to get the other girls and came back to the car wash to wait for the last group and off to swimming we went.  I'm not sure if we got caught that day or not, I got caught many times through my High School years.... good thing I worked for the attendance teacher :) 

So back to our Jeep ride.... we drive to another beach area and I drank a gallon of water within the last hour so now I have to go to the bathroom.  Just my luck they're closed, but maybe they keep the doors unlocked to the bathrooms so I walk up to the building and tug on the door..... nope locked up tight.  I turn to walk away and something catches my eye when I turned.  I start flapping my arms and yelling "OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG"  and again flapping like a chicken that was about to fly away "OMG, OMG, OMG".  John says stop OMG'ing and get your camera.  Oh yeah.... dang I had my little 50mm lens on so that means I have to get close.  I just want you all to know that the only reason I got this close was for you guys, I was squirming and chivering the entire time I was taking these 30 some photos. 

I just want you to know I almost stepped on this sucker, they serve food out of this building, people and small children hang out here.  Babies are pushed in strollers at this spot..... small dogs are on leashes, heck small dogs and babies I'm afraid for the big dogs and toddlers, heck with them I was afraid for myself right at that moment.

Wanna see it?

All the years I lived here I have never seen one of these things so friggin' huge, I'm telling you it was OMG huge!!

As we followed this thing all around the building John decides to stamp his foot and the head coils up and it's tail rattles...... I yell "It's a friggin' rattle snake", he says "it's not a rattle snake"...... stamps his foot again "can you not hear that sucker rattling, it's a friggin' rattle snake".  Well it got to the solid patio and had to cut across I decided to get creative and get close to it since it was heading away from me, I'll stay by the rattling tail.  Did I happen to tell you I still have my little lens on so I was this dang close.

"Okay let's go back to the Jeep".... as we are walking I'm grabbing onto John and say "you can bet your bottom dollar I won't be cutting across the lawn to get to the parking lot"!!

Just in case you were wondering how big he was..... I said he was at least 8 foot long and 6" in diameter.  Okay so for real he was, in John's words "a good 3 foot long and 1" in diameter" and it was a Pine Snake.

Longest Day of the Year

This morning I woke up at 4:40, 10 minutes before my alarm, and the sunrise was beautiful, it was blazing red, I woke John up to show him and he just moaned at me.  I thought about how I was going to get the camera out when I got up in 10 minutes.  The alarm rang and the sunrise was over, the sun was up and ready to start the day, and so was I.  I love daylight.

First day of summer and we get more rain so since I didn't get the sunrise I walked around in the rain. I can't remember the name of this lily but for about 5 years I chopped it off thinking it was a weed until Gayle talked me into letting it grow and find out what it was.  This ain't no weed Connie!!

Rapids Visit

While Up North we always have a to take a trip to the rapids. 

Fishin' in the dark

This year the pier was gone, they are getting a new one but it's not here yet.    The day was cloudy and very windy but the night followed with a calm lake and a very colorful quick changing sky.

My brother Randy fishin' in the dark.

Up North

The family spends Father's Day Weekend "Up North" we can't wait to get here to sit around the fire, eat, garage sale, eat, ride bike, eat, fish, eat, ride 4-wheeler, eat, skateboard, eat, go to church, eat, get ice, eat, laugh, eat, tell stories, eat and then we have lunch. 

We laughed so much tonight my sides were hurting.  If you don't spend a weekend around a campfire with your family you really should, you never know what you'll find out about them.  :) 

Random photo to keep you coming back

Another crazy week for me, Un-decorating from a wedding, decorating for another wedding, editing photos, working, getting ready to go to my dad's for the weekend, digging up plants between rain showers...... there is no time for two things.  One of them I learned to live with...... cooking.  We have not had a meal in this house for over 2 weeks, we live on baked chips, turkey sandwich meat wrapped with a kraft single, and gum.  The second thing I can't find the time to do for the last two weeks is blogging.  So bear with me while I convince John that gum is one of the food groups and I post random pics that I can just stamp with my logo and put a border on. 

See that's how important you guys are to me :)

Sneak Peek + No Rain Wedding

I don't have time to go back to the days I missed so I'll just make it up to you with lots of pictures.  The weekends forecast was rain, cold, gloom, miserable weather but the day couldn't have been any better.  Let's start with the most beautiful bride whos smile never left her face for the entire day.  She is keeping the tradition of not seeing her soul mate until she walks down the aisle, so the morning and early afternoon are spent in the house or sneaking outside the front of the house for a few pictures. 

Next is the groom, a very handsome groom I might add.  A man with a very tender heart for his bride to be, she is the center of his world and he's not afraid to show it.

Their most important part of the day..... It didn't matter to them if it rained all day they were getting married and nothing was going to stop them.   

The look on his face shows his love for this girl.

The wedding party looked fantastic.

Hanging out in the garage, not many people would find an old garage a MUST for photos, I told them not to think I was crazy.... we even had to back the truck out to get the shots.  Totally worth it!!

The last is a photo of the grooms family, I love it and just had to share.  The newly married couple could care less about all the chatter, they are in their own little world, that world is called "in love".

Congratulations M&N and thank you for letting me share in your wedding activites.

Crazy week = Quick Edit of Miss Mallory

Having another crazy week here.  Decorating for a outdoor wedding for this weekend.  Can you all do me a favor and pray for no rain on Saturday.  I don't care if it gloomy just not downpours.  This bride is the sweetest girl ever, the possiblity of rain isn't even stressing her out.  She just rolls with whatever is handed to her as long as she can marry the man of her dreams.  The decorating is all done and it's stunning, I didn't take my camera for a peek because I will be there to document the entire day on Satuday.  I have lots of ideas if Mother Nature let's me, if not we'll just roll with it. 

Since it's been so crazy here I have not even taken a new photo since Saturday, my poor camera is probably going through withdrawls......  I have many to get done and off my plate so I did a quick edit on Miss Mallory to share with you.

Sepia + Happy Tuesday

I like sepia photos, I am going through hundreds of wedding photos so I thought I'd share my favorite (so far) of the sepia photos. 

The one thing that will bring the happy bride to tears....... seeing her daddy!  There is something about those dad's and their little girls wearing a wedding dress.

Snakes + Step Back Monday

Same girl - New pets

Snakes...... are you kidding me.  She comes running to the dock with her pets to show me.  I had my big long lens on thank goodness so I could ask her to back up..... claiming my lens was too long but really I didn't want to be in close range if she dropped them.  They would tangle all up in her fingers and wrap themselves around her necklace and she thinks they are great.  They travel from their home in town to the cabin with them.  There are two of them and she thinks they are great.  So for my Step Back Monday I chose to have her step back, further, further, further..... okay that's good.

Miss Yellow

You can't get much cutier than this.  When "Yellow" got out of the car I screamed with delight at how cute she was and how fun this was going to be.  At the time she was only wearing the dress and flip flops..... then she put on the boots.....  let's just say I was speechless.  

Yellow and I had a really great time talking about her up coming musical "Shout", they are never referred to as names but colors and she is "Yellow" and yellow she is, fun and sassy yellow and she made my heart skip a beat a couple times as I snuck a peak at the back of my camera.  I would ohhhh, ahhhh, and I love it more than once.  Then I talked her into checking out a new location, it's quite a ways away but so worth it as I knew Yellow would be perfect for it.

Thank you Yellow for such a fun afternoon.  I know it's good luck to say "break a leg" but I was afraid you almost did when I had you jump off that column with those high heels so I say "be careful".  I will be there to cheer you on in a couple weeks.

Grumpy Toad

A little girl who is not afraid of toads..... who knew?

Sneak Peek - Ian

Little Ian and I had a play date set up for almost 2 years and it finally happened.  His Mommy is a very busy girl and so is he..... but we finally worked it out.  As soon as he got there him and I went to see the ducks and talk about brothers, sisters, bath time, babysitter naps and farts.  Yep farts was the only conversation I could get to make him laugh.  I learned all about how his daddy and him fart while in bed.... his dog and cat fart and guess what....... so does his mommy.  But he smiled!!

Mr Ian is my youngest nephew, he is younger than my granddaughter..... gotta love big families.   

Happy Tuesday