I hate when the blog sits vacant for so long…I want to post, but I think, “eh, I got nothing”, then the pressure builds and it turns into a cycle of not writing.  Anyone have any good ideas for summer writing prompts?  Writing prompts were the things I really appreciated about my (now done) writing course…It gave me a plan and a direction and caused me to look at like through a different lens in looking for a story to tell.  So, if you’ve got some prompts, I’d love to hear ‘em!!

Monday night we went here, the kids were begging to go walk around, despite the triple digit heat.  I brought the wide angle lens because it does well in low light, but it made it hard to photograph the whole building the way I wanted.  So I settled for capturing the flowers.

Someone once told me they employ thirty full time gardeners at the Temple, I can believe it!  The grounds are always so beautiful with all sorts of blooming flowers- year round!  I wish I could employ someone to make my yard look so nice year round.

Flowers that bloom year round…in the desert!  That is really saying something.  As we walked around I realized that the Temple is really an oasis in the desert, both literally and figuratively. You can easily walk the grounds and admire all of the beautiful greenery and forget that you are in the middle of the Sonoran Desert.

And, when you think about all that goes on inside the Temple, it can be a real relief from the daily trials of life.

There are two visuals that come to mind when I hear the word “summer”.  One is bright green grass bathed in bright white sunlight, the sun is intense.  The other is kind of a dying grass bathed in a dusty orange and pink light, the heat is warm- but not in an overpowering way.

It is summer here in Arizona, in both senses of the word.  I captured this a few weeks back (our first 100 degree day of the year!).  I think the light and the processing just perfectly captures the dusty orange and pink of summer.

I woke up to these dark clouds this morning.  I could not be happier.   Sometimes I get so sick of the sun and blue skies here in the desert!

My kids weren’t pleased, today is supposed to be their field day, they are not keen on having to reschedule for next week.

I have to write a poem today, my mothers who write assignment.  I’ve known about it all week….but something about writing poetry with the topic of “teenager” just doesn’t inspire loquacious prose. I guess that’s the point though, stretch yourself and try harder.  Maybe I will use the stormy clouds of the sky to explain the stormy and sometimes dark years of teenager-hood.

p.s. you can follow me on instagram, applesonastick

Years and years ago after my first baby was born I found myself in need of a new swimsuit.  I found a dream of a suit at Lands End.  A beautiful light purple tankini that I found in the overstocks for a whopping $20.  I loved that suit, I loved that the bottoms were high waisted enough to hide all of that post baby tummy jiggle.  It eventually wore out and I needed a new one.

But this whole single income stuff…it makes swimsuit shopping hard (as does the 3 babies body I now posses).  What I am delicately trying to say is I’m cheap and my body requires expensive swim suits.  Have you seen how much swimsuits cost these days?!  Since my lovely purple swimsuit bit the dust I have been gimping along on past season Target suits.  Ill fitting and cost more than they are worth.

This year I decided I was going to get a good quality swimsuit.  I had been drooling over the retro polka dotted suits at Boden, and when a check came through for some client work I decided to splurge and buy a real swimsuit.  I ordered the suit and a pair of shorts and then began daily games of “who can spot the mailman first!” in eager anticipation of the arrival of said swimsuit.

Finally, it did arrive!!  But to my utter dismay it didn’t fit.  FYI, for Boden sizes, order one size up from your US size.  I shipped it back to exchange it for the larger size.  Then I began my stalk the mailman game again….but still nothing. After having seen and touched the swimsuit my love for it grew.  I just knew that this summer was going to be the best ever pool season, that is the power I have granted to this swimsuit.  So eager for it’s arrival I even drew a picture to help me visualize how amazing it’s going to look on me!

See, it looks great on!  It even gives me a little cleavage (I am so dreaming that any swimsuit can do that for me!)  But it has been nearly 2 weeks and I had heard nothing from Boden and was starting to panic.  This afternoon I called them up, the conversation went something like this:

Me: “Hi, I ordered a swimsuit and it arrived, but I ate too many Hershey kisses and it didn’t fit.  I sent it back in hopes that you would send me a larger size.  Did you get it?”

Helpful CSR: ” Oh, I’m so sorry about the Hershey Kisses.  Can you give me your order number please?”

Me: “Um, I don’t have it.  I threw it away and deleted the emails”.

HCSR: “No problem dear, can I have your name and addresses?  Can you verify a few things for me?”

Me: giving info

HCSR: ” No, we didn’t receive your order back.  I am so sorry, let us ship you a new swimsuit.”

She reordered the swimsuit for me and is sending it express shipping, she promised it would be here by THURSDAY!  In all seriousness I could not be more impressed with the customer service at Boden, they were extremely helpful and did everything they could to get my order back out to me.  I thanked the CSR over and over again!

Have you bought your swimsuit for the season yet?

We set off this morning in search of snow.  We were prepared with sleds, snow pants and gloves.  We checked snow fall totals and talked to a weather aficionado.   We headed to the rim, with visions of this in our minds.  After 80 miles of nearly nonstop crying and screeching,a tense (and not good) meal at Denny’s- we arrived to find this:

Do you see that tiny bit of snow way up at the top of the mountain?  My kids tried their best to make the most of what was available.

The baby had a grand time looking at all the “go-go’s” (aka: goldfish, but it was really trout at the fish hatchery).  After this misadventure I decided we did not drive all this way just to have a bad meal at Denny’s and look at trout!  We drove back into Payson and found a park, because that would totally make the trip worth it right?  It’s not like we don’t have parks here in the Valley!

The the 2year old screamed in utter exhaustion all the way home (read: another 80 miles); finally succumbing to sleep about 20min from home.  The big kids were so so SO patient (really, they were, in case you thought I was being sarcastic) with their tired sister.  While I didn’t utter a single bad word the entire day, I sure as $#%** thought of a whole bunch of them!

p.s. we did see 2 bald eagles while we were out.  That brings my total to four bald eagles I have seen in the wild.

It’s raining in the desert today.  The skies have been grey and wet for 2 solid days now, I could not be more pleased.  @mother nature- BRING IT ON!

I’m recovering from last weeks massive fundraiser at the kids’ school and a few other things.  These grey days have been perfect for curling up on the couch…which of course leads to massive amounts of deep reflection (you to?!).  I read a book yesterday that caused a serious rift in my glorification of the 1950′s & 60′s.  Its called Cotton Queen by Pamela Morsi, and it was a light piece of fiction- easy to read and a story that isn’t quite as predictable as I thought it would be.

I am not naive to the plight of women through the centuries, I took the prerequisite Women’s studies classes that all enlightened and educated women take in college.  I was fascinated with Women’s suffrage at the tender age of 17 and wrote a history report all about the movement and the key players.  While I intellectually understood a lot of freedoms that were not available to women- even in to the 1970′s and 80′s, this book helped me to feel it, for the first time.

The thought of living through the 60′s feels like a horror movie to me. I want to kiss the ground of every woman who walked before me and paved the way for me to enjoy the freedom to: educate myself at some of the best schools; to climb as high as I am willing to on the corporate ladder; to raise my children how I know to be best without the ramification of a narrow social view.

My grandmother was a divorced mother of 6 (!!!) in the early 1960′s, I can only imagine the social isolation she must have felt and the lack of social structures to help her both care for her children and feed them.  She managed to come out on top, though no doubt it was a hard battle.

My mother became a single mom of two little girls at a tender age and at the beginning of the 1980′s.  Women were just starting to be offered the same jobs as men at that point, but the pay was no where near equatable.  I can only imagine the fear in her heart as she had to decide what to do to support my sister and I…the isolation that comes from being a single mom when all your contemporaries are young college co-eds.

I am glad that our mothers and grandmothers and great grandmothers paved the way…I hope in my own way I too can make the world a better place for my daughters.  I am grateful that they will have choices; but with those choices comes a great responsibility.  I hope they will grow to be strong, capable, and compassionate women.

I’m working on a meatier post for later this week, but in the meantime I wanted to share this photo I took last week.  That’s right, LAST WEEK.  My roses start blooming again in the fall (perks of the desert)!

The softness and colors were just so beautiful I wanted to bottle them!  I did the next best thing and created a color swatch of the colors used.  If I had the talent and power, I would make my bedroom feel as soft, light and beautiful as this image.  sigh…I’d never get out of bed!

The Veteran’s Day parade makes me cry….every year.  Same with 4th of July.  I am such a sap for patriotism (read my feeling here).

As I watched the Tempe High Marching Band strut down Mill in their snappy blue and black feathered hats, I felt a little thrill.  I love parades, and I love the marching bands the most (the drums being my favorite!).  It occurred to me that parade season is just beginning….Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade later this month and then the mother of all parades The Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena (sigh, one day I’d love to see it live!).

I love the feeling of community that comes out for the small town local parades, I saw so many faces that I knew today marching alongside the veterans, shriners, councilmen and local scouts.  Just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy today, the opportunity to honor those very brave men and women who selflessly serve and protect our freedom every day.

A few weeks ago a friend from chuch asked me if I would take her family photo this year.  At first I think I laughed.  I explained that I am not  a photographer at all, I like to pretend online, but that’s just it, I pretend!  She insisted that she loved my photos and that both she and her husband wanted me to take them.  I agreed to do it after fully disclosing again that I only pretend to be a photographer!

Today was the day…I wanted to pee my pants with all the anxiety!  I flipped through the camera manual and read a crash course online of portrait photography and hoped for the best.  I still don’t have a prime lens (I vow to buy one with my next paycheck!), so I shot with my kit lens (boo!) and my old hard body 1.4/50mm lens…from the 70′s.  I so heart the images that lens can produce…only problem is you have to shoot blind.  Since it isn’t a digital lens you have to manually focus and there is no light meter and you can’t shoot on auto (which I try to avoid anyway).  I took about 200 photos, and thought I would share 2 sneak-peek out-takes for the family.

The blond, she is full of personality, she and my daughter love to ham it up together!!  The above photo was taken with the 1.4/50mm lens, oh how I adore the DOF and the clarity of the family.  I really really heart this lens.  HOWEVER, because I am not great with manual focus many of them did not come out. boo.

I just loved this shot, it captures the fun personalities of these two!  I gave it a bit of a cross-processed edit, to add to the urban feel the family wanted to capture.

Now, let’s all cross our fingers and whisper to the photography gods and hope that the R-family will be happy with the results!

I’ve decided to be more present and to focus on feeling all that my life throws my direction.  The good, the bad and the ugly.

Today it was good.  I had the chance to visit the Desert Botanical Garden this morning with some friends, it was free today thanks to Target (which I stopped at on my way home and spent more than the general admission, so it was a wash!). I tried hard to be present and to really enjoy the day with my daughter, to appreciate her and what she enjoyed.

I hadn’t visited the butterfly exhibit in YEARS, and it was a treat.  The baby enjoyed the butterflies too, she very much wanted to grab them (and probably rip their wings off!)

(really loving the texture in the background…want to isolate it and use it for other projects)

In an attempt to appreciate the desert (which I struggle with), I looked around and tried to find a view that made the desert look pretty.  I liked the contrast of the Papago Mountains near the front entrance…

Question- those of you who do not live here, do you think the desert is beautiful?  Can you appreciate the greens and browns and dry earth?