Halloween in CO

Paul and our good friend Joe decided to go on an elk hunting trip at the end of October. They had been planning it for quite a while. Well, Caleb and I decided to go visit Andrea (Joe's wife and one of my very best friends) and their daughter Allie during the same time. While I was there, I threw Andrea a baby "sprinkle" to celebrate the upcoming birth of their second little girl. Paul drove the truck out, with our deep freezer in the bed of the truck, just in case they got something. Caleb and I, on the other hand, drove to Atlanta and flew out of there. I was a little worried about him on the plane, since I had never flown with him by myself, but he was such a good boy. He really is a great traveler.

While we were there we went to their local indoor pool so the kids could splash around, went to a pumpkin patch to pick out the perfect pumpkins, went to another farm to see all sorts of animals and go on tractor rides (we never even got around to the corn maze there was so much to do!), and took the kids trick-or-treating together. Both Allie and Caleb were giraffes, which was not intensional. I borrowed a costume from a friend so I wouldn't have to buy one, and it turned out Allie was the same thing. They were cute as Mr. and Mrs. Giraffe! We only went to about 6 houses, but it was plenty for them.

The guys saw lots of deer, moose, and elk on their trip, but were not successful in getting an elk. They were a little disappointed, but had fun hanging out nonetheless. They enjoyed the beautiful scenery, even though it was bitter cold. We actually tried some elk meat in a stew that Andrea made while we were there (from an elk Joe shot last year) and it was very good! Even Caleb liked it. I love the fact that it's all natural. No growth hormones, antibiotics, or harmful chemicals that are in the meat you get at the grocery store. That's kind of how I've come to terms with Paul's new hobby of hunting. I used to have a problem with it, but now I'm more accepting. We had a difficult time getting used to the idea of eating venison, but now I use it in many recipes instead of ground beef and we can't even tell a difference!

Anyway, here are a few pictures from our trip. I wish I had taken more, but Paul had the regular camera in the woods. I resorted to the video camera for the first 2 shots. C wasn't happy in the first pic, but it shows the pumpkin patch and the beautiful mountains in the background.

Composting

I meant to post this when I posted pictures of our garden, but I don't think I had downloaded the pics to the computer. This is a picture of our compost bin. We had tried vermicomposting (composting with worms) in SC, but it didn't work out too well for us and yielded a low amount of compost in a long period of time. So we decided to go another route here. We researched some compost bins and decided on this one, called an Envirocycle Bin, which tumbles around in a circle to circulate and aerate it. It's been working well so far. We just fill it up with our fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, egg shells, and yard waste, turn it every few days, and in about 6 weeks we have beautiful, rich compost material for our garden. Hopefully adding this dirt to our garden will help our veggies grow big and healthy! An added benefit is that I can collect compost tea from the bin. There is a spout that I open and drain the "tea." Then I mix the tea with water and water my plants with it. It's like free miracle grow! (I know, it looks gross, doesn't it?)I just love the fact that we are recycling our food waste instead of sending it to a landfill, or even grinding it in the disposal. We actually get to benefit from it.
In case you were wondering, we have a kitchen compost bin under our sink that works great as a holding place until we empty it in the bin. It looks like this and has a carbon filter in the top to keep odors away:The only problem we have with our system is that we fill up our bin and then have no place to put compost while that first batch is "cooking." We've resorted to using an old garbage can in our backyard to hold waste while we wait for the stuff in the bin to finish decomposing. Maybe we'll get another bin so we can have two going at the same time.

Messy Faces

These were taken back in July...I had forgotten to post these. One day I had my camera out and just started taking pictures of Caleb eating his lunch and getting messy. He was pretty animated and gave me lots of funny faces! There were several more, but I didn't want to post too many.

New Blog!

Have you noticed my new button on the side of this page? It's a link to my new craft blog! I know...I can hardly keep up with this one, right? Well, I'm hoping that I can post pictures of the things I make and improve my Stampin' Up! business as well. Hopefully I can inspire someone to get creative. I've narrowed my crafting down to my two favorites: stamping/papercrafts and sewing, so those will be the things I post about. There is also a page for homemade things I am selling. Check it out when you get a chance!

Garden

I read an article today in "Organic Gardening" magazine (Oct/Nov 2010 issue), and it reminded me that I wanted to post pictures of our garden this summer. But before I get to the pictures, let me describe the article. It basically says that gardeners are happier AND smarter! A study done in the United Kingdom in 2007 showed that happy feelings when digging in the dirt are linked to a soil organism called Mycobacterium vaccae. This organism decreases anxiety and increases serotonin (the "happy hormone").
Now, a new study by the Sage Colleges in Troy, New York shows that this same organism increases learning ability. The study's lead author and an associate professor of biology, Dorothy Matthews, says "We know there is a relationship between serotonin and learning. When you're stressed, you don't learn as well." So her team decided to test mice navigating through a maze after being exposed to the Mycobacterium vaccae. The results were surprising. Those mice exposed "performed twice as fast with much less anxiety." And the positive effects lasted quite a while too! So get digging in the dirt to improve your overall mental health!
Okay, here are my pictures now. Some of the foods we grew: pickling cucumbers, regular cucumbers, green beans, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, red peppers, carrots, and a bunch of beneficial plants for gardens. We attempted peas twice, but they didn't work out. The marigolds are to keep bad bugs away. I now have basil where we pulled the green beans after they were done.

Mid-June
Beginning of August

Water boy

These two pics are from early August when Caleb was helping me water the plants in the front. He is drawn to water like a fish! He can't see a hose or sprinkler without going over to check it out (and get drenched!).

Family Reunion

The last 2 weeks in August were pretty busy for us. My aunt and uncle in Portland, ME hosted a big family reunion, and we decided to go since we hadn't seen my mom's side of the family in years. They all live up in the New England area (CT, MA, ME), so we just don't get to see them often. It turned out beautifully, and I think everyone enjoyed catching up and hanging out together. We feasted on steamers and lobsters, among tons of other food. The weather was pleasant and cool (a nice break from the heat for us). Caleb got to meet several family members he's only heard about. There were 2 other little boys for him to play with (my cousin's boys), so it was fun to see them all together. It was a lot of work for my aunt and uncle, but we all appreciated the effort so much and had a great time! I'm going to try to put together a little video to share on here soon.

After we got back to Atlanta, Paul took off for Denver, CO to go hiking up in the mountains with our friend Joe for a few days. The major purpose of this trip was to prepare for their hunting trip in October. They wanted to stake out the land and see where all the elk were. Apparently it was a highly successful trip and Paul is super glad he went out there for many reasons. I stayed at my mom's house for the few days he was gone and took care of some shopping. Then we made the 5 hour drive back home. All-in-all it was a really great 2 weeks and a much needed break from work for Paul.

Flowers and Birds

At the end of April, we planted a cut flower bed, so that I could have pretty flowers to enjoy inside. While most of the seeds got washed away with a huge downpour soon after we planted them, a few strong ones survived to be fruitful. The flowers that I've been enjoying include Zinnia, Sunflower and Mexican Sunflower. A few Safflowers came up too. And sometimes I add some Marigolds from our veggie garden (we use them to ward off insect pests).
I've had this one that I edited in Photoshop done for a few weeks now. This scripture that I used happened to be part of my devotional this morning, so I thought it was only fitting that I post it today!
I haven't been the only one enjoying these flowers. We have several hummingbirds that come by to check them out. Our hummingbird feeder out there in the middle of the flower bed helps too. These pics were taken from our kitchen window.

Note: I changed the title of this post because a friend (with a dirty mind) informed me that my previous post name was a little risque! Naive me, didn't even know!

Photo shoot

At the end of June, Caleb and I went to visit my mom to celebrate her birthday. We ended up staying through the 4th of July, and had a really nice time. It was mini-break for me, since my mom was there to help with Caleb. One day she took him for the entire day while I went shopping from 11 AM to 9 PM! It was nice to have a day to myself. While we were there, we pulled out Caleb's froggy pool and I decided to have a little photo shoot with him. It is so much fun playing with this camera! I certainly don't have it figured out, and I am struggling a little with getting pictures in focus, but I think I got a few good ones. I was really just experimenting. I have also been learning more about Photoshop Elements...editing, using layers and actions, etc. I've wasted too much time already, but it's fun.This is his "Mom, are we done with the pictures yet?" look

Pictures from June

Sorry it's taken me so long to get pictures posted. I'm taking a little video break so I don't get too behind in photos. Since I got this new camera, I've been playing around with Photoshop and trying to figure out the best way to organize and share my pictures. I took so many pictures initially, just playing around with it, but didn't realize it would take me so long to go through them! Here are two of my very first shots, taken of my patient, furry subjects.The weekend I got the camera, Paul, Caleb and I were invited to my Aunt and Uncle's house in Tuscaloosa for dinner. My cousins Kirk and Stacey were there too, so it was fun catching up!Caleb enjoyed quite a bit of attention!And here are a few random ones. This first one is supposed to be "distressed/vintage" or something. Just playing around with Photoshop.And of course, a few from our trusty little point and shoot.This little boy LOVES the vacuum cleaner!