I Heart Faces Photo Challenge - Water

When you are from the midwest, summers = going "up north" or "to the lake". It's just a fact of summer life. 

I give you a typical weekend in the midwest...I give you some "Fishing Peace".

 For more "Water" summer fun...

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge - Water

the wheels on the bus are falling off

Here is an interesting little thing I've learned about me and my kids since my loving husband has moved to South Dakota ahead of us.  Without his patriarchal presence, there are no boundaries when it comes to the momma's personal space.  My bed, my bathroom, the 1 foot space behind my office chair...are all open game to a child placing themselves in the space around me.  It is simultaneously beautiful and maddening.


I hate not having my husband present.  I had forgotten how crazy I am without him to calm me down and give me some perspective.  When we are together, it's ying and yang baby.   This life we have created, runs well only when we are a team.  Everything is overwhelming when going it alone.  Well not everything...but clogged sinks, drippy outside faucet are.  Water features with broken pumps that now appear to only function as a breeding ground for mosquitoes make me feel as if the wheels are falling off the bus.  Because normally, he would be here to work his boy magic and I wouldn't have to worry about them. 


I want my husband back.  I want my wife gig back!


I remind my self that in three weeks this will all be over. We will be together, in our new home (goosebumps!)  And when that happens there will be part of me that misses the anticipation, the excitement and adrenaline that goes with big change like this.  The house in Vermillion is like the mother of all Christmas presents...just waiting to be unwrapped.  And I'm the little girl that sneaks down every morning to shake it, trying to figure out what exactly is inside.  I don't know yet what our stuff looks like in that house or what our lives will look like, but I soon will.

I'll take what's behind door #624 Monty! 

At whats coming...well it's almost more than I can wrap my head around.  For the first time in my adult life, I will be living near my mom.  She will be living less than an entire day's drive from her grandbabies. There will be pop ins and calls that go something like "hey we are going for a walk after dinner, wanna come?"  The pictures here will completely change. We will be interwoven into the fabric our each other's daily lives.  Yup...can't wrap my head around it.


In the meantime, I'm all over the map, trying to stay organized on all fronts.  Work, babies, house, packing, new house, new job.  What is getting lost in all this is time for this blog, which is fine, it's a hectic time.  But all this stress, excitement and change only creates more thoughts, more things to say.  But there is no time and all day long I think of things to write, tuck them away into a safe part of my brain.  And just as I suspected those many months ago, they often disappear as I lose the nightly battle with sleep, crawling from my desk chair to the office couch.


My "edit posts" page is an outstanding list of two to three sentence observations, designed to trigger some blog post I stored away.  Reading them alone is hilarious.  When summer is over and life starts to settle into a quiet, peaceful, South Dakota routine, it will be fun to see if those blurbs inspire the blog posts they are intended to.  Or will they simply be random thoughts, discarded for newer, shinier ones?


This summer's soundtrack is made up of The Tallest Man on Earth, Bon Iver, Feist and Fitz & The Tantrums.  I <3 life soundtracks.  Life soundtracks are my absolute favorite.  The organic way the music weaves itself into the fabric of your life.  For that snapshot in time, it is permanently part of the memory.  Fire up a little Hall & Oats and I'm mowing the lawn at the farm with my first walkman on.  Aldo Nova...and I'm choreographing my first dance...on roller skates.  Aldo Nova = frozen Charleston chews and bright white skates with a pink puff on the toe.  Sheriff "When I'm With You" = totally devastating junior high love.  Radio dedications and slow dancing so close you melt into each other.  ~sigh~


This topic needs it's own blog post.


So the soundtrack to the summer is in place and the slide show in my head...the flickering reel to reel of the summer of 2011 looks like this:











It's all there. The long cold spring, packing, grandma visits, birthday, clearance end cap pools and interpretive dance in the kitchen. The official drink of the summer of 2011 is the Leinenkugel's Summer Sampler Pack...cans. Because they stay cooler longer in the summer. Who knew?


The one year anniversary of The Nerd Herd blog is approaching. I miss those lazy days of spare time and emotional purging via blogger. I miss pausing and feeling...communicating. I will be so pleased when the constant tasking is over. Feeling and not just doing. It's happened here and there this summer.  We will find a few more of those moments I'm sure. 


I know better than to wish time away. Even in turmoil, there is beauty.








And interpretive dance in the kitchen.

Photo Challenge...Red, White & Blue

I Heart Faces weekly photo challenge time again:) The 4th of July is a big holiday in my family and this cake is a staple of our celebrations. I cannot remember a year without it.   It is part of our tradition, to leave our cities and gather at the farm.  To wear cheesy matching red, white & blue t-shirts and spend too much money on South Dakota fireworks (thank you SD for your less restrictive laws).  It is currently my mom's job to whip up this patriotic cake, but I'm next:)

Check out more fantastic, Red, White & Blue inspired photos at:

http://www.iheartfaces.com/2011/07/photo-challenge-red-white-blue/

waiting for a sign

I played a little hookie today.  Yesterday was the kind of work day that makes a Human Resource professional experience seller's remorse for ever recruiting anyone to work in their company.  It's almost over.

So today I spent the afternoon alone.  All by myself, by design.  I watched two documentaries and cried from 12pm to 3pm.  It was beautiful.

Very well known fact:  I am terrible at having a career. I'm good at building one, but I feel like I pay a price.    I'm terrible at making "making money" a priority.  While I do not like having debt, I prefer to have just enough to have the things you need and a few you want.  More than that complicates things.  Messes with your priorities...fogs them up.

I say this because another known fact is that I have always felt the urge to do something...BIG.  Something BIG for others. Watching those documentaries today brought that back to the forefront of my mind.  In both, the individuals had transformed their lives from ones of comfort and excess to enough and altruism.  In both cases, they took years to take the leap, to give up the lifestyle they had.  "Finally I knew, that if I didn't I'd regret it for the rest of my life."  That made me feel good.  It is a nagging feeling within me, this feeling that I'm not quite on the right track.  But I believe I will know when to change course, I will get a calling of sorts.  I just know there is something out there that I'm supposed to do.

Does anyone else feel this way?

For now I funnel that energy into my kids.  And recently photography has been an area where I can do something for people.  People who cannot afford expense photo shoots, but who want to capture the beauty of their family.  Or their children.  Or themselves.  The size of my heart expands ten fold when I'm shooting someone (EEEK!  Is there a better way to say that?)  I have a shoot tomorrow and I'm all warm and tingly planning for it.

Not much to say tonight.  Just a little spill over from a kind of emotional afternoon alone.  I feel like hugging the universe, smiling at the world.  I'm full up with cheese.

And my husband is coming home tonight.  I'm beaming.

Some photos left over from May to take us into a weekend.

Texting Uncle Barrett

Window are is totally cool at our house.

Liam has decided that taking his toys OUT of the toy box is dumb.

Add caption

Miss Annika "Willow" loves her trees:) 

Have a great Friday night!

I Heart Faces Weekly Photo Challenge - Bright & Vivid

It's been a while since I jumped into the I Heart Faces photo challenge, so busy!  But I've been sneaking a peak and could not resist submitting this photo for the Bright & Vivid challenge.

I think this is the best baby blanket ever.  To me, it is made of the dreams of the toddler who sleeps in it.  The bright colors and fantastical animals go on wild adventures whenever he closes his eyes to sleep.

 http://www.iheartfaces.com/

MURDER

I come from a long line of theatrical, wonderfully nerdy people.  Enjoy.

Salute!  You are invited to the Underwood Wine Estates to celebrate the annual wine festival and grape harvest.

This mystery is set in the wine region of Napa Valley, California.  Five years ago, Barry Underwood, owner of the prestigious Underwood Wine Estates, mysteriously disappeared during the valley's annual wine festival.  A massive search at the time failed to turn up any clues and the case has been in the FBI's unsolved files since then.

Now, five years later, it is once again the annual wine festival in Napa Valley.  Last night, family and friends gathered at the stately Underwood mansion to celebrate.  At midnight, a minor earthquake shook the mansion, causing an old wooden floor in the wine cellar to buckle.  Barry's well preserved body was discovered under the cedar planks.

It is a clear cut  case of murder and these are the suspects!

Tiny Bubbles

Barry's fiancee at the time of his death. Perky and pretty, Tiny has an effervescent personality and a razor-sharp mind. She is now married to the new winery owner, Ralph.

Otto Von Schnapps

A German wine merchant. Boisterous and fun-loving, Otto attends wine festivals around the globe, buying the best vintages for distribution in Europe. It is said Otto's preference for red or white can be influenced by the green.

Marilyn Merlot

Marilyn was crowned Wine Princess at the festival five years ago, then went on to become a Hollywood movie star. She's returned to Napa Valley for the Wine Festival and to gloat over her success.

Ralph Rottingrape

Barry's first cousin and heir-apparent to the Underwood Wine Estates. Long considered the black sheep of the family, Ralph took over as manager after Barry's disappearance and has been running things his way ever since.

Hedy Shablee

The owner of the neighboring vineyard and a fierce competitor of the Underwood's. Barry's disappearance has uncorked a now vintage of troubles for unhappy Hedy.

Papa Vito

Brought over from Italy sixty years ago by Barry's grandfather to develop Underwood Wine Estates, Papa Vito has devoted his life to the vineyards.  Now he just wants to retire and drink a little vino in the afternoon...Salute!

Bonny Lass

A Scottish tourist who has attended the wine festival while vacationing in California. A mystery writer and best-selling novelist, she knows a thing or two about hidden bodies and old wine cellars.

True love?  Or partners in crime?

Otto tries to cuddle up to Miss Merlot...but really what man wouldn't?

Which one of these suspects do you think had the most to gain by Barry's death?  Which on of these suspects is the murderer?