My enabler

I had such a great time with Julie and Liza at lunch today, but Ainsley was the only one who'd let me take her picture for the daily photo. So far she's the only person in the family who doesn't audibly groan when my camera comes out. She's a little more passive-aggressive—she just makes silly bug-eye faces at me. I caught her off guard here, in all her Flashdance glory.

Quote of the day

Ellie to Ainsley: "No, I don't want to play that—Duck Duck Goose is for preschoolers."

A day late

No cameras are allowed at Pioneer Theatre, so I didn't get my daily photo yesterday, but we enjoyed the play. Shakespeare is definitely meant to be seen, not just read. Thanks for the tickets Ralph and Judy! I'm not sure who had more fun, us or the kids, who had Grandma all to themselves—thanks Mom! And even though we didn't get nearly enough time to talk, we loved going with Pete and Becca.

To tired to be decisive

The beauty of posting the daily photo here is that, if I want to, I can actually post more than one. It doesn't happen often, but I did two fun things in the same day...

First, lunch with Amy and Char—it's been way too long!


And pedicures with the YW:

I still don't have any really artistic shots, but at least I'm taking photos again!

Proud mom

Joey finished Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire today. I know that I was at least in high school, and maybe even college before I finished a 734-page book. He's eight. Thank you J.K. Rowling.

It's family night

I've got it easy tonight.

Anniversary dinner

That last photo was not the photo of the day, since I obviously didn't take it, and it obviously didn't happen yesterday. As I pulled out my camera to take this shot, Rob predicted that fully one-third of my daily photos will be of food. What can I say? I have a simple life, and not very many willing subjects.

This chicken is one of our favorites. I got the recipe from Jen Brewer, and it's super easy. Just mix 12 oz. Homemade brand Chili sauce and 16 oz. Bernstein's Restaurant Recipe Italian salad dressing in a gallon size freezer ziplock bag and marinate the chicken overnight (that's enough marinate for about 8 breasts). Then have your husband grill it. And don't ever learn to grill, because then it won't be quite as easy. :)

13 years of bliss

Rob's update today on facebook said he is "fondly remembering this day, thirteen years ago when he was so sick he could barely stand up. And he got married."

I'm just glad he didn't take it as a really bad omen and back out. I still love him the most.

Daily Photo

I've toyed with the idea of a daily photo before, but couldn't handle the commitment. Then for my birthday photo scrooge did the unbelievable and gave me the digital SLR I've been coveting. I'm so excited about my new D90 that I'm going to give the daily photo a shot. I love the idea of capturing the day-to-day aspects of our life and not just the events that I usually photograph. And I want to be a better photographer, which takes practice. For now I'll post my photos here, maybe I'll join Davy over at aminus3.com or the 365 project on flickr sometime. 

Valentine boxes

I'm breaking my long blog silence just for you, Care. Robbie had a great idea for a creative valentines box for school, and Joey decided to forego his idea of a flushing toilet box in favor of this:



Joey is just starting the fourth book in the Harry Potter series, and Robbie recently finished the Eragon series.



The boxes were pretty easy to make—they're lightbulb boxes that open on top, so the top becomes the front cover of the book. We painted the boxes the background color, photocopied the cover and spine, and glued it on. We glued white cardstock on three sides to look like pages. We added a bookplate sticker inside the box that says "This book belongs in the home library of: ____________." The boys plan on keeping these boxes to stash their stuff afterward.