Always, Alli

You know how when you get back from a vacation you feel like you need another vacation? Well, my dirty little secret is I sometimes slack off for a few days after getting home. Then something reminds me I am no longer on vacation and I start cleaning the house, unpacking our suitcases, and getting laundry done.

I totally thought I would do the same thing this time. Except on Tuesday afternoon I discovered one of the grossest things in my house- my freezer was unintentionally defrosted while we were gone. And the food inside the freezer had spoiled sending mold around the interior and flooding the floor beneath the freezer where mounds of dust and lint met a watery demise.

There was no lazing about to be had, I had to clean up the mess. And it included moving shelving, moving the freezer, and properly ventilating the house so I could use a bleach solution to kill the mold.

I know our freezer needed to be defrosted, I just didn’t think my husband planned on it happening this way. Our kitchen is finally back to a normal state, and maybe this week I can actually cook a meal in it.

Now our dining room… that needs to be addressed.

I was really excited to have my new DSLR with me for the 4th of July. I was looking forward to finally making use of all the “How to photograph fireworks” blog posts I had read in the past year.

In the past, I had recorded pictures like this one.

And I should note the pictures were shot from a boat, since the best place to see the Lake Martin fireworks is on the actual lake.

In all the fun blog posts/ articles I read about shooting pictures of fireworks, the first instruction is use a tripod. Apparently the idea of being stable is important in capturing fireworks pictures. And since I knew I would be on a boat, I had the idea of proving all those blog posts wrong.

I was going to take pictures of fireworks with my new DSLR and be on an unstable boat, and my pictures were going to look good.

Then a storm blew in and our fireworks viewing was limited to whatever our neighbors were attempting. If they didn’t blow off their hands, then some of the fireworks ended up in the air.

I had my tripod so I set up to follow the actual instructions all those bloggers gave… and the neighbors stalled in their pyrotechniques. I took a few pictures, but they were boring. And since I had to wait sooooo long between shots, I gave up.

My best shot

I’m looking forward to next year. Maybe my kid won’t be sick and maybe I’ll get some good fireworks pictures.

Our time at Lake Martin is really flying.

Oh wait, did I mention we are away? Last Friday our little family packed up and headed to Alabama for our annual July 4th trip to Lake Martin. Fuller and I have been a little under the weather, but I know we are still enjoying ourselves.

Yesterday morning I was able to sit pretty with my new camera for a while and get some great bird pictures, like this woodpecker above. I have decided to try and capture a picture of a fish jumping out of the lake, but it might prove to be my Moby Dick in the photography realm.

Relaxing (re: napping), swimming, boating, and visiting are top priorities when we are at Lake Martin, and while we have computer access, I have been using that time to upload even more pictures to Flickr. If you take a look, you might think you are actually here too.

I took a lot of pictures last week. And in the coming days I don’t see it slowing down. With VBS last week, our time at Lake Martin this week, and a wedding next weekend, I just have so many neat things to take pictures of and am getting a real joy out of using my new camera.

For my Best Shot Monday I pick this one:

These are sandals the kids made out of carpet samples. Since we live close to the “carpet capitol of the world” (aka Dalton, GA) samples were in great supply. Fuller looked forward to this craft all week and the woman who lead it (Dana) is one of the sweetest and gentlest women I know.

For more Best Shot Monday pictures, check out Slurping Life, this week’s hostess.

Technorati Tags: Best Shot Monday, sandals, carpet

My “me time” yesterday turned into a run to Lowe’s with my husband. We both had to go for different reasons and instead of waiting until Damon got off work, we decided to go sans Fuller. The result was we were in and out a lot faster than we thought we would be. Seems trips to anywhere with Fuller take at least an extra half hour, so my timing was a little off.

D and I were able to have nice conversations while driving to and from the store, so that was a bonus. And once I dropped him off at work I went to the church and took more pictures of the VBS crew (our pastor was the “Rabbi” for the day, so I really wanted at least his picture).

I appreciate all the great ideas for how to spend my “me time.” While I would have liked a nap, it probably wouldn’t have happened since I have the inability to sleep well these days. And I did consider taking a book to Mocha Joe’s, but I need to get to the library to actually have a book to read.

But when it comes down to what to do, I had to pick the errand I needed to get done because we leave tomorrow evening and that means time is running out. I guess I have no time for nothing.

I promise: when I find another time in my life when I am child free and have time for nothing, I will spend it doing nothing. Or I might ask you to pass the remote.

Did you see the story about the 9 and 7 year old protesting the price of gas? It turns out their cable was the victim of family budget cutbacks due to the needed funds for the gas tank.

And while I admire the girls for their actions and realizing the severity of gas prices, I want to applaud the Vance family for taking more action than just using their car less.

The gas prices of today give me heart palpitations and sometimes, after I fill up the car, I don’t drive for an entire day thinking it will help keep some money in our wallet for a while longer. We take the bus more, drive in a more efficient manner, and try to pile all our errands into one big trip so we can lessen our car use. But what do you do once you have done everything you can?

Unfortunately it means taking a look at your family spending and seeing where you can cut back so you can still pay for the necessary things like shelter, food, and clothing. If that means cutting the cable, then so be it. In my mind, television is a luxury item.

Sure we use it and use it often (it is on right now), we enjoy the luxury of television. But if it comes to paying the cable bill and paying the grocery bill, I think cable is going to go. How many people think of it like that? How many people will ditch the Tivo, Netflix, or even the (gasp!) internet in order to rearrange their financial priorities to fill their gas tanks and pay the bills?

We used to swap luxuries in our house. During football season we had cable and used dial up for our internet. After football season was over, we went back to high speed internet and dropped the cable to extreme basic.

Let me know, do you think the internet is a luxury or a necessity? I am still on the luxury side of the fence. I haven’t utilized it to the potential of earning a paycheck from it and there is enough free wi-fi within walking distance that I could check my email every day if I wanted to. While I enjoy having answers at the tips of my fingers (thank you IMDB and Ask.com) I think my life would not suffer for lack of internet access.

Sure, our family would be sad to have to wait for updates and pictures, but I think (I hope) our families would respect our desire to pay the mortgage versus having access to 24 hour a day HGTV and YouTube.

So tell me: is the internet a luxury or a necessity?

I’ve been having fun taking pictures at VBS this week. Tomorrow though, I don’t have to be there, so I plan on dropping Fuller off and then taking off.

I’m a bit giddy about the time and how to spend it. The floor is open, please tell me what I should do with two hours by myself.

I have a rare quiet morning to myself, I almost don’t know exactly where to go from here. I could sit and fold laundry. I could quietly watch TV and sip my coffee. I could empty the dishwasher and put the chicken in the marinade.

Instead I find myself praying, being still, and contemplating the upcoming morning. Our church has VBS this week and while I was there yesterday taking pictures, today I participate by helping by leading a craft.

I have to admit I was harboring selfish thoughts of dropping my son off all week and leaving for five glorious mornings of “me time.” But volunteers were few, kids were plenty, and I said, “Ok, I’ll do the boat craft one morning.” Except I figured, if I’m going to do one, why not two, so I will be doing it today and Thursday.

The energy of the kids yesterday was fun to be around. It was hot and I was looking through my viewfinder for most of it, so I didn’t really catch the thrill. I was just happy to be near it.

My heart bubbled over with joy though that Fuller remembered the story of Jesus saying, “Follow me!” so I sit here and pray for the kids this morning, for the teachers, and for myself. I pray our hearts will bubble over with joy to hear the story of Jesus and the early days of his ministry, knowing it was His gift that gives me such a wonderful life now and in eternity.

This is my first time participating in PhotoHunt, and while I took a lot of water pictures this week (a trip to the aquarium will do that), I like this one from the car wash last Sunday. I’m actually in my mom’s car, giving it a quick wash before picking her up at the airport. Since her car had been under my Tulip Poplar tree for a week, it was covered with sticky sap and didn’t look so great.

Technorati Tags: photohunt, water, car wash

I’m grateful my mom was able to come and help out with some much needed yard work in my house. And then we got away from the yard for a morning and visited the aquarium.

Now I am nursing a sick and temperamental three year old, leaving me pretty zapped for anything else. I don’t want to take him anywhere, so here at home we sit.