My new little toy!

Lately I've been jealous of the fabulous food photos I see on different blogs. I know, that's really weird! I for some reason take lots of pictures of food. Whether I'm cooking or in a restaurant. I also have always loved photographing flowers. Close up. Well, a macro lens is totally out of my price range forever so I bought this fun little 50mm...

Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.8G

It's going to give me a really nice background blur. Here's a flower pic I took with it this morning.

I'm really hoping to have time this summer to learn how to use my camera without it being in auto mode! Seriously, I haven't even scratched the surface of it's capabilities :(

Can you say "ACCESSORIZE"?

Emmy is at that fun age where she likes to wear stickers on her clothes, lots of jewelry, bling headbands and sunglasses! Anything goes!
Every day is something new and fun with Logan and Emmy. We were hanging plastic Easter eggs on bushes in the front yard and Logan found a tiny little egg. Emmy came up to me batting her little eyelashes and said she wanted a cute tiny egg too. So, we looked in the bag and found one. It was pink and Emmy said she wanted a purple one. I said and I quote "sometimes we have to make do". Well!!!!!!!! Logan's head whips around and Emmy gets wide eyed and asks "how do make that"?? Logan says "yea, MiMi! How do you make DO?" I couldn't stop laughing!!

Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom would have been 83 today. I miss her terribly. I kept thinking that her birthday was last Friday and the Friday before that, so this morning I didn't even realize it until my sister emailed me that she had been crying this morning, thinking about my mom since it's her birthday. Well, I'm not going to beat myself up about forgetting. I know I think about her every day and miss her so very much.

My mom in 2004

My mom and me, 2010

Spring has sprung!

Yep! It's beautiful here in N.E. Ohio. The past week the daffodils are blooming as are the crocus and hyacinths and the birds are chirping, dancing and fluttering all over the place! I'm pretty excited to start decorating for Easter. It's nice to have the windows open ALL the time right now and with the cool evenings comes perfect sleeping weather.
I think this coming weekend I'll try to find time to help Paul in the yard a bit. The wisteria and roses need to be cut back desperately. Last year the wisteria didn't even want to bloom-I think it felt choked by all the little feeder branches.
I'm feeling much better but I still have a little cough and that makes me not want to run. I'll have to start slowly next Monday I think. Logan hasn't been feeling well the last couple of days, poor little guy.

Sedona

Today I was feeling much better. I took a tiny 1/2 tsp of the cough syrup this morning and we drove to Sedona. Beautiful area. I'm enjoying our visit to the desert but I can tell and feel it in my bones that I'm still a beach girl at heart.
We hiked 3 miles around the outskirts of Montezuma Castle and Well which is in Red Rock State Park. I felt really proud of us. I don't think we'd be able to do it if we weren't in some kind of physical shape for our age. It was tiring but fun. Didn't see much in wildlife, just one little lizard. I think it's still a bit cool here this time of year for the critters.

Did some shopping at the little local shops. Fun!

Montezuma Castle

Not sure of the spelling of the castle. Here at the hotel the internet speed is at a crawl so I'm not going to upload any more pics from here. I'll try again tomorrow night.