Photographs

I love photographs. They have the ability to take you back to a time and place and evoke powerful memories. Even photos of places you have not been and of people you do not know, allow you to imagine the experience. They tell stories without words and allow you to see how people and places change over time. I love looking through scrapbooks and photo albums to relive experiences. I also love professional portraits, especially when they manage to perfectly capture the subject's personality. They allow you to see who that person really is/was and are wonderful items to pass on to future generations. I love photographs.

Related to this, if you would like to see my family's most recent portraits, and have the chance to win a 10x10 specialty portrait of your own, be sure to check out this post on The Happy Wife, one of my other blogs.

Baby steps

I have been failing to meet my goal of publishing at least one post a week here and I again apologize. I am working on posting more often, and I have lots I want to share. I just need to actually sit down and type it all out. I have currently been posting about once a month and I will continue that, but my new adjusted goal is twice a month. Once I get that down, I will go for once a week and then hopefully, even more often.

I often find that when I set my goals, I set them high and I do not provide a plan to reach them. By following what I stated above, I have put in place the baby steps I need to reach my bigger goal of posting 2-3 times a week. When we give ourselves baby steps, we are better able to reach them and therefore have several times when we have the feeling of accomplishment. Plus, if we are unable to reach our larger goal, each baby step we did reach, improves our lives anyway, just on a smaller scale. I did the same thing when I wanted to lose weight. My goal was to lose about 150 pounds. My baby steps were to eat whole grains at least twice a day, eat a rainbow of colors every day, cut out soda completely, increase my activity and to limit myself on sweets and fatty foods. I also had even smaller steps for each of those goals. I ended up losing 80 pounds (which I have since gained back after having 2 more children), but now I know I can lose the weight and I still eat more whole grains, fruits and veggies than before. As a matter of fact, I am going to add the weight loss to my list of goals. I will try to post my progress as I go along. I guess my first baby step will need to be to get all this Halloween candy out of my house ;0)

A Great Deal

I love great deals so I had to share this one that I found. There is a great deal on the new Snow White DVD/Blu-Ray 2 pack. On Amazon.com, the sale price is $19.99, but if you enter the coupon code "Snowhite", they will take an additional $10 off, making the total cost $9.99. Shipping is $2.98, but the DVD does qualify for Super Saver shipping so it could be free if you add another $5 to your purchase (the total needs to be $25 before applying the $10 coupon for free shipping). This includes both the regular DVD and the Blu-Ray version so whether you have a Blu-Ray player or not, this is a great deal.

Kind people

This is a story I have been wanting to share for a few weeks now, but have been unable to sit down and actually type it up. As some of you know, we recently went on a cross-country (NY to Seattle area and back) vacation, by minivan. Before leaving, our local grocery store had a really good sale on cherries and I love cherries. I suggested buying some for the road trip, but my husband insisted on waiting until we got to Washington, because there is "nothing better than Eastern Washington cherries". I obliged since we were heading there anyway. When we finally made it to Sunnyside, WA (a small, but very cute city), my husband found a fruit stand and went in to buy some long-awaited cherries. The look on his face when he returned empty-handed told the whole story. Cherry season had ended the week before. Disappointed, we headed on our way. As we reached the edge of town, we pulled over to set the GPS and to take a picture of this huge, red wagon. While my husband was fiddling with the electronics, a police officer pulled up behind us with his lights on. We were not overly concerned since we knew we had done nothing wrong, but we were curious as to why he was pulling up behind us. The officer approached the window and asked if we needed any assistance. My husband told the story of the cherries and stated we were just getting ready to head back to the highway. He asked us to give him a moment and he began to make a few phone calls. During his phone calls, we learned that this was not just an officer, this was the Chief of Police in Sunnyside. Incidentally, we also realized the red wagon was sitting in front of the jail. Chief Ed Radder, continued to chat with us while he was on hold during his phone calls. He explained that Johnson Foods was located there and that they provided asparagus and cherries to the Schwan's Company. After he finished his final phone call, he told us to follow him and he gave us a police escort over to Johnson Foods. Upon arriving, my husband and Chief Radder approached a tall gentleman who they chatted with for a few moments. The gentleman then walked away and returned with a HUGE box of freshly picked cherries and handed them to my husband. My husband asked how much they were and the gentleman said, "No charge. Welcome to Eastern Washington." There had to easily be 10 pounds of cherries in that box. Even after bringing many of them to a family function a few days later, we still had cherries that made it back to NY. We were told it is was a great cherry season this year, all I know is that these were the sweetest, juiciest cherries I have ever had, made all the better by the kindness and generosity of Chief Radder and the folks at Johnson Foods. I love cherries, but I love kind people even more.

A Giveaway

I just wanted to let you know that I am hosting a giveaway on my other blog, The Happy Wife. Head on over and check it out. The prize is a Fiber One yogurt meal pack like the one shown below.



Bonus entry: If you are a subscriber or a public follower of Things I Love, leave a comment saying so on the contest post and I will give you an extra entry.

Skirts

I love wearing skirts. They help me feel feminine and are less restrictive than pants. Long skirts are great for activities that may require bending or getting on the ground, but I prefer knee-length or just below knee-length for day-to-day activities. I especially like fun designs on my skirts. Well, today, I came across a blog, Supermom Central, and she is hosting a giveaway for a cute outfit for girls (sizes 6-10) from DownEast Basics. The outfit you can win is a long-sleeved lace (trimmed) tee shirt and a skirt, but they also have GREAT clothes for women too, including some really cute skirts. My favorite is the Sabbatical Skirt shown below. It is fun, feminine, and PINK (my favorite color).


They also have clothes for plus-sizes, maternity and for men too. Their prices are reasonable and their sale section is huge with prices comparable to Sears clearance prices. I love good prices on skirts.

My beautiful garden

I have always dreamed of having a nice garden, but since we were renters for so long, I never had the space to have one. I would tell myself that whenwe bought a house, I could have my garden. Reality is, I have 4 little ones that would make it rather difficult to start a garden from scratch. When we did buy our new house, I was thrilled that the previous owner was an avid gardener. Since we moved in April, we have been blessed to see the crocuses bloom along with the tulips and daffodils. Currently, we are enjoying the clematis and the peonies and the roses, and don't forget the fresh strawberries and mint. I look forward to the raspberries as well and all the other flowers I am sure will bloom before winter. I love seeing the beauty of nature every day.

PS- I do not currently have pictures, but will take some in the next 48 hours and post them.