Friday's lunch

Today for lunch when I went home, this spring weather was just amazing! I told Matt that we had to eat lunch outside and enjoy the temps since it won't last for long. We like to watch Mac sunbathe and stare into the sun. I wonder what he thinks about.

A happy boy!

 After I finished lunch, I pulled out the wonderful Hammock hubby gave me for my bday a few years ago. It was chillin' in the old storage bench during the winter cooler months. 

 Here was my companion. He didn't quite know what to think of it.

 Oh, and check out my new glasses I got for $3 @ TJ Maxx yesterday. They were from American Eagle. I love great deals!

I can't wait for the weekend, so I can spend the whole day like this! All I need is for hubby to come out and feed me grapes and fan me w/ a palm leaf. 

However I have a feeling I will be helping Matt fix my car. Or just watch him, I get nervous when people work on cars by their selves. Sunday we might got and see 21 Jump Street or the Hunger Games. What are your plans for the weekend? Going to see any movies? 

Mississippi

My Hubby's family has property in Mississippi that they go and visit/hunt/camp at often. For as long as Matt and I have been together, I have never gotten to go out and see it. Until now. We finally had some free time when we were visiting in the summer, to go out and walk around . We brought the dogs and thought it would be good for them to run around a bit out there too. 

The old house

The road diverged. 

Pups on the leash

Off their leashes and trusting that they won't run away. I was so nervous that Mac might run off chasing something and that we would loose him. Luckily he stayed right behind my father in law and did great!

The side of the old house. 

Inside the floors are falling apart, but just look at how beautiful this floor covering is. I believe it is some kind of laminate. I wonder if they still make this? 

Mac covered in stickers from the tall grass. He so happy and having the time of his life!

The three of us with the pups before heading back to attend a crawfish boil!

I love visiting our old family homes. There is so much history and character in the old houses. We are working on cleaning out my grandparents house in Illinois still. They have been gone for almost 10 years now. We are slowly moving stuff out and around as the old house is falling apart in some areas. It is mostly old books my grandfather had in his library, or libraries I should say. I will have to find those pictures and post them for you. It is quite the undertaking. 

Mac - Picture of the week

I meant to post this on Friday, sorry I am a day late. Life happens as we all know. The below pictures are from a recent maternity photo session I was taking for my friend. The whole time I was running into Mac who just happened to be where I needed to be at that moment. You all know how that goes. Pets are always in the most inopportune place. I guess Mac got tired of me tripping on him and decided he needed more attention. Therefore he decided to get in the pictures.

He started as a lump, hiding behind the background. 

Then eventually came out and just stood there in the picture. 

Then he laid down

And stayed there. 

Eventually he flopped over on his side and went to sleep. 

Just look at this sad face. This is his poutty face, when he doesn't get any attention. Just pitiful huh? 

Does anyone else's pet pout? What are some things they do when they don't get attention like they want? 

*Disclaimer* These pictures have not been edited and are not shown as a final product. They are just for fun and to show how cute and needy my puppy can be.

Beef....it's whats for dinner?

Does everyone remember those commercials. haha. Sorry for the absence here on the blog. My computer at home that had all of my pictures wasn't very happy with me. Apparently he was very full, and needed a bigger hard drive. Thanks to a very good friend who is computer savvy, my computer is back up and running w/ plenty of storage space for the moment. I won't be posting EVERY day, but I hope to keep doing it a few times a week. Be sure to hold me to it.

The insides of Mac the computer, (I know my computer and the dog have the same name, talk to Steve Jobs about that, not me.)

Last night I cooked a rocking recipe from Real Simple's magazine (Aug 2010 issue). I love this magazine and the recipes they put in there are usually really good. I am so glad I saved this one and tried it last night because it will now become a regular in our dinner rotation. It was super easy and fast to make. It does really only take 20 mins to make and cook. So instead of heading to the freezer for that frozen pizza or to the pantry for some hamburger helper, you can get a home cooked meal for the same amount of time and work. Here is the recipe:

You might notice in the top right corner I wrote "great". I like to put that on recipes that I have tried for a few reasons. #1, so that I can remember that I cooked it (I have a bad memory), and #2 so that I remember if it was good or great or not. If not, then I will get rid of the recipe. If good or great, I'll keep it in the rotation. 

Here is a close up of the "great" rating.

Here is our take on it. Not a great pic from my phone, but I think it still looked tasty.

Do you have a rating system for your recipes? Does anyone else have tons of recipes strewn around their kitchen? I really need to take some time and put all of my recipes taken from magazine and website and put them all in a binder, organized. 

Haylee - Newborn portraits

Wow, I just found this blog post that I never published. It is a little over a year old now, but the images are too cute to not post, so I hope you enjoy!

This little beauty's name is Haylee. I took her mom's senior pictures a while ago you can see them if you click here, she is a beauty herself. I got to take Haylee's pictures when she was only 7 days old. She was soo tiny, I loved it. She did great curling up and sleeping as hard as she could. She also had tons of family there to support her on her first photo shoot.

This picture is worth more than words. Grandpa wasn't supposed to make it to see the baby because of an aggressive cancer that was found. But Miraculously it disappeared and he is here to see this little beautiful girl. What a blessing!

The May Family - Family Portrait

Here is a beautiful family that I got the pleasure to work with in December. Cindy is in my ABWA group and so fun to work with. I love her girls, they are the sweetest and are so fun. They actually modeled these petti skirts for me. I need to post those because they were so precious. This time I got to photograph the whole family for their Christmas card.

Cindy and her beautiful girls

They are so precious

Paradise

Does anyone else have an obsession with Coldplay?
Does anyone else go around singing Para- para-paradise, for like hours after this song? 

 This is my absolute favorite song at this moment. Well any Coldplay song could really be my absolute favorite, but this song just evokes so much feeling from me for some reason. I almost actually cried watching this video, it could be the hormones I am taking though, idk. In the video when he found his elephant friends though, it made me so happy for him and I wanted to cry. Which is strange because the last time I wanted to cry while listening to this song, someone had died on a TV show and this song was playing in the background. Isn't it weird how music has such an influence on how it makes you feel. 

Whenever I am stressed or worried, I usually turn on some Coldplay  music and it usually calms me. Do you have any band/group/song that helps you relax or that evokes strong emotions from you? Or does anyone else have a strong love for Coldplay? I am slowly getting my hubby on board with this song, to becoming a fan of theirs.