You Capture: Smile

Posted in You Capture by teamtradermom

This week’s You Capture was easy and fun. We have a lot of smiles around our house so it was simply a matter of being ready to capture them!

Samson

Some people say that dogs don’t show emotion but this sure looks like a smile to me. This was taken after a good romp and play in the backyard so he was hot, tired and very happy.

Peek-a-boo!

My favorite smile….Isabella loves to play peek-a-boo! She will hide behind doors, furniture, toys, Samson…whatever she things will obscure her. I was lucky to be there at the right time to capture this precious grin when she opened the window in her playhouse! Seeing this smile everyday makes all life’s troubles fade away.

Owen

Isabella’s boyfriend Owen came over to play on Saturday and really enjoyed eating his cupcake. I tell ya, this boy is well trained when it comes to smiling for the camera. All I had to do was say cheese and he’d break out in a big grin! I think it helps that his mommy is a photographer. Don’t you think he and Isabella make a cute couple?

Tired

This is her “I’m tired and ready to collapse but I have to keep playing” smile. Poor thing was exhausted and practically fell asleep in my arms before I could get her to the bed. It was a good, fun tired though!

I have one more to show…but it’s not nearly as cute as the others. I wanted to represent CJ and me in this series but I ran out of time and didn’t capture any. So, I took a quick self-portrait this morning after finishing the Shred. I’m hot and sweaty, but happy to be done with my workout!

I kept it small though. No sense in magnifying my glorious sweatiness!

There you have it! If you want to see what others did with the theme this week, head on over to Beth’s!

If you liked this, you might also like:

Check out my other artwork for sale

You Capture: Fun

You Capture: Vibrance

12Apr2011

Sleeping Dogs Lie

Posted in Samson by teamtradermom

I think Samson has the right idea….

11Apr2011

Ghostly Grass

Posted in House and Home, Miscellaneous, Uncategorized by teamtradermom

So I think our house is haunted.

Yes I totally believe in that stuff. I’ve never really bought in to the concept that when we die, that’s it, end of story, finito. I’ve always believed that our spirits live on. I don’t know if it’s in heaven or the afterlife or what, but they go somewhere.

And sometimes they like to come back and visit.

Here’s what happened Friday night. Isabella woke up around 2 a.m. crying. I went in to check on her and she asked for juice. I picked her up and we headed down the hall to the kitchen. I got her sippie cup out of the fridge and handed it to her. With gusto, she grabed the juice and was in process of lifting it to her mouth when she stoped in mid-air and started staring at the microwave. I urged her to drink her juice and then she whiped her head around and was looking in to the dining room.

Then she said, “Someone over there.”

Cue goosebumps up my arm. I looked in to the dining room and didn’t see anyone. I now strongly encouraged her to drink her juice and she says it again, “Someone over there.”

At this point I make a hasty retreat to her room and close the door. I again ask her to drink some juice but she has lost interest so I rock her for a bit and put her to bed.

As I’m leaving her room, I look down the hall and wonder “who” is there. It could be CJ’s mom who passed away in 2009 or my grandma who died last year. Or it could be some random spirit popping by for a visit. So I say in a whisper, “Dorothy or Ma, if that’s you, thanks for visiting and watching over Isabella. If it’s someone else, please leave.”

Then I ran back to our room and jumped in to bed next to my strong husband with the big biceps. As if having muscle is going to make a difference to a ghost. It’s not like he can beat them up or anything. But it made me feel better.

I told him about it the next morning. CJ was like, “Oh yeah, there are definitely spirits here. I hear noises all the time when I’m up at night.”

Um, WHAT?!?!?

Apparently he’s heard doors opening/closing when we’re all in bed. He’s heard door handles rattling. He even felt someone brush his ear as we were sitting there talking.

Ok, whatever spirit you are that’s touching my husband, you better back off sista!

Anyway, he decides that our house needs to be smudged to remove the spirits. We decide to do it later in the day, when Isabella was gone. So we go about our day doing work around the house and I forget about the incident.

It was a busy day and by the end, I was exhausted. I fell in to bed and was down for the count.

Until about 1:30 a.m.

I woke up to an interesting smell. My sleepy and tired mind thought it was pot. I seriously woke up and was like, “Who is smoking pot in my house?” Then I opened my eyes and saw CJ walking around the room with a burning bundle of sage telling the spirits to get out of our house.

I thought I was dreaming. I blinked my eyes a couple of times and stared. Yep, it was for real. I found out later that he had gone down to the garage and while he was in there heard our trash cans falling over. It was very distinctive and unmistakable. At first he didn’t think much of it, as it was a windy night. Then he remembered that all the cans were all loaded down with lots of trash from our day of work and definitely too heavy for the wind to knock over. So he went and looked and they were all upright just fine.

It was at that moment that he decided some ~~pot~~ sage was in order. It just so happens that we had some because we used it to cleanse the house when we first moved in. Guess it didn’t take. Or it’s something you have to do repeatedly, like the dentist (ahem, Cheri). At any rate, it’s now been done so we are spirit free. I think. I hope.

Unless the spirits like sage. Maybe they were hanging around looking for a good high and now we’ve just given it to them. That would be my luck too.

If I see an empty bag of Cheetos on the floor when I wake up in the morning I’ll know for sure.

If you liked this, you might also like:

Epic Shopping Fail!

Posted in Miscellaneous by teamtradermom

It’s been a long week. Stress from work coupled with the big project at home makes Sarah a tired girl. I decided yesterday that I needed a little pick-me-up. Instead of running straight to the neighborhood dive bar for a stiff drink and some old man ogling, I went shopping.

We have a local store called The Post and Nickel that sells high end designer clothes. It’s going out of business so everything in the store is discounted. There are signs all over the outside that say “EVERYTHING MUST GO!” and “CLOSE OUT LIQUIDATION SALE!” so I thought I’d be able to snag a great deal on some designer clothes.

I thought wrong.

But before I get to that, let’s step back a minute. Yesterday was an “I’m too tired to give a damn about how I look because I just want to be comfortable” kind of day. Fortunately I have a job that lets me indulge in comfie clothes on those days so I was wearing a fleece sweatshirt, jeans and Sketchers walking shoes. I also had my hair in its natural state, which is limp and wavy.

Pretty much exactly like this (except this pic was taken at a different time):

When I left work, it was raining at a pretty good clip. Being the healthy girl that I am, I had parked in the very last row of stalls because it forced me to walk farther. That works great on a nice sunny morning but not so great on a cold rainy afternoon. By the time I got to my car, my already limp and wavy hair was now limp, curly and plastered to my head.

Hot sexy baby!

Now picture that vision of a woman walking in to a designer clothing store. The whole place seemed to come to a halt. It was like everyone just stopped and stared as if to say, “Um, like, are you lost or something? This isn’t a homeless shelter…” I remained casual and strode on in, with purpose and confidence. I was repeating mantras in my head like “I am worthy of designer clothing” and “I make more money than these snooty sales people dammit!” and “I am a “Pretty Woman” too!”.

I was looking for a watch. Mine died and I thought this would be a good chance to replace it with something cool, at a decent price. That was my mistake – expecting a decent price. Everything in there was marked down 60-70% and it was still over $100! I did find one pair of jeans for $39.99 but they didn’t fit. No watches that I could afford either.

So now I felt like a fat, drenched, poor little mouse. And I quietly slinked out of the building, hoping no one would notice and sneer.

I was still on the lookout to buy something – anything – to perk me up. A watch, a purse, some shoes…I didn’t care at this point! I looked around for a place that I don’t ever shop, as I wanted to try new things, and my eyes landed on Marshall’s. I thought hey, I’ve heard of friends getting great deals there on cool stuff, I’ll give it a go. I ventured on over and sprinted in from the rain, only this time everyone in the store looked like me so I didn’t feel too out-of-place.

I hit the shoes first. Nothing struck my fancy. You know how when you’re in one of those moods to shop yet can’t find anything you like? Yeah, that was me. Strike 1. I wandered over to the purses next. Nothing that I liked or could afford. I was actually surprised how expensive Marshall’s was! $50 for a purse? Um, no. That probably seems cheap and reasonable to some people but to this “the cheaper the better when it comes to purses” gal, that was too much. Strike 2. After that, it was watches. However, apparently Marshall’s doesn’t carry jewelry because I wandered around the whole store and found nothing. Strike 3.

You’re out!

I gave up at that point and just went home empty-handed. I was feeling depressed and grouchy but when I got home I was welcomed with open arms and tail wags, which really, is all anyone needs anyway.

If you liked this, you might also like:

Shop

Thanksgiving

Time to Shop! (everything 1/2 price)

6Apr2011

The Island

Posted in Friends and Fun, House and Home by teamtradermom

A few months ago, thanks to a co-worker, I discovered the Wall Street Journal House of the Day. I will admit to being a bit of a voyeur. Yep, guilty as charged. It’s why I love reading other people’s blogs and why I like to visit friend’s houses. I want to see what other people are like, and how they live.

Confession time – when driving around at night, I will look in to the windows of the houses I pass by. No, I’m not a perv. What I’m really looking at is the decor. I want to see how people decorate! What color of paint do they have on their walls? What kind of furniture? How do they have it arranged. I am endlessly fascinated by this and always looking for ideas. I probably should have been an interior designer or something instead of in technology. So I have to satisfy my need for all things design by looking into YOUR windows! 😉

That’s why the WSJ House of the Day was so much fun to me. Here was a chance to look inside million dollar (and in most cases, multi-million dollar) homes and see what they are like. The site runs the gamut from modern to traditional, Victorian to country and everything else you can think of.

They even had an island one time.

And on this island was an AMAZING house. To be honest, I don’t even remember what the house looked like or what made is so amazing. I just remember that I liked it so much, I forwarded the link to my best Skype bud, Rhonda. She thought it was awesome too and we immediately made plans to buy it.