Picture of the day....

Smiley dog!

mmm...cupcakes...

Delicious yummy mini-cupcakes...green icing and all.

Just a picture to leave you wanting one.

They sure tasted good.

Flip Flops and the Rain.

(Caption in picture says "Ouch...flip flops are not a good idea in the Rain.")

It is June. It is pouring rain out..Buckets upon buckets of rain. Raindrops that hurt when they hit you on the shoulder. But I am all for summer, I am ignoring the rain and pretending it is warm out because we've had like three months of rain. Enough is enough...my grass is green at least so I guess that is a bonus. The rain did not revive my dead tree either. So maybe it just added to the problem of the already dead tree in the front yard. Anyways back to my story.
I wear flip flops, I pretend that it is summer out...caught up? ok let's continue on. Flip flops as you know have no traction whatsoever, which is why they are meant for summer. They are meant as casual wear. I hate socks, which is why i wear flip flops whenever I can...unless there is snow, no flip flops then.

But today i choose to wear the flip flops. On the best of days I slip and slide around in them. I am kind of clumsy sometimes, tripping over my own feet. But I knew my flip flops were slippery with this rain, so I was being overly cautious. I climbed into my truck just fine and had no problems with slippery flip flops. I ran some errands and then came home, got my gripping on the driveway after i got out of my truck, took two steps to shut the door and the next thing i knew I had slipped because of my flip flops and landed on the driveway.

So the above photo is of the bruise it left behind post slip...it hurts, it's tender to the touch...but I bet you I will still be wearing flip flops tomorrow even if it rains because i love them and they are so much better than socks and shoes. If i wear my shoes without socks my feet smell too much so I would much rather wear flip flops and allow my feet to air out.

Time for an update....my subject? Hutterites.

(Some hutterite girls on the rocker thingy at the park)...
I like to take my five year old to the park in summer. Today was no exception to that rule. It was beautiful outside....the sun was shining, there was no wind. It was just a beautiful gorgeous day outside. So I figured since we hadn't frequented the "big park" lately that we would head there today. I didn't that on a monday it would be busy, seeing as parents have kids in school and this is post lunch, so the younger ones should be napping.....it shouldn't have been busy. Boy was I wrong. It turned out to be an interesting sight. A scool from a hutterite colony was enjoying the ammenities of the park. Kids in polka-dots running around wildly from one thing to the next...they were everywhere!! It was one big sea of polka-dots and boys in dark pants and suspenders. The teacher announced that there was only ten minutes left until the bus was to leave, so I figured we could deal with this for ten more minutes, then the park would be empty again....so i took it upon myself to stealthly photograph some pictures of some of the kids.

A little hutterite girl playing all by herself on another rocker thingy. I thought it was a neat picture.

Group shot! They gathered all the hutterite kids onto the bridge between the two play structures and began to snap away picture after picture of all the kids gathered together....Now I was ready for them to leave post-picture but this brought to mind something else...Photography and hutterites.

Alberta hutterites had been sharing driver licenses. This was a big debate in newspapers and in the court system as well because of the sharing of driver licenses and them being photoless. Their beliefs are based on the fact that images are prohibited by the second commandment. In may 2007, the alberta court of appeal ruled that photographs violate their religious rights and that driving is essential for them. So they believed that having photographs on drivers licenses violated religious beliefs...doesn't gathering school children for pictures do the same? But in July of 2009 it was made mandatory that hutterite colonies must abide by provincial regulations and rules for photos on drivers licenses...So I am still left to debate as to whether or not hutterites believe it is alright to take a picture or if it isn't.... I mean in this case it must be alright because they gathered the school children for a group photograph. Just an interesting debate...

So after the hutterites left, the park was empty for about two minutes until two busloads pulled up full of......No it wasn't more hutterite school children....haha

Things put up the nose...

We all love popcorn. It tastes so good, it's light, it's fluffy and its a delicious treat. When I make popcorn I use two bowls. One to pop the popcorn and the second one to transfer the fluffy popcorn to minus the left over kernels. I am fairly attentive to these little kernels because I don't want the kids to choke on them or bite them and wreck their teeth. So usually the left over kernels end up in the garbage never to been seen again. I had put my five year old to bed and had her all tucked in and settled for the night. I was in my room talking on the phone a few minutes later explaining to my mom that the kids were tucked in bed and settled. No sooner had I said that when my five year old came downstairs, her eyes were big and puffy and filled with tears. She admitted she had been playing under her bed when she should have been sleeping but earlier this evening she had found some garbage under there and had cleaned it up. All except for one kernel of popcorn, so when i had put her to bed she decided that was the best time to clean it up. She climbed under her bed, got the popcorn kernel and climbed out. She said she was walking to the garbage can and her nose itched, so she itched it and inhaled the popcorn kernel. After many tears and sobs, I told her the only way (other than a trip to the ER and tweezers to extract it) would be to blow her nose. Her first attempt was unsuccessful, so I said try again and this time we plugged her other nose and out shot a single kernel of popcorn. She began to laugh uncontrollably and thought this was the funniest thing ever. I then comforted her and proceeded to give a little lecture on how it was not ok to stick things that don't belong in the nose, inside her nose. I may have told her the next time we might not be so lucky and that a doctor might have to remove it with tweezers or by some other means. She still maintained as she was being put back to bed that she was itching her nose and she inhaled it, but I am not to sure that is the case...after all five year old's are curious and putting something in the nose. What five year old or child for that matter hasn't shoved something up their nose? It did remind me of this however:

Homer simpson and the crayons he was shoving up his nose and in his ears...One ended up making its way up towards his brain, getting lodged in there. Therefore making him the homer simpson he was...so he had it surgically removed which changed him into an intelligent being...Homer however did not learn his lesson and shoved his daughter Lisa's crayon up his nose to return him to his previous state... I find it funny that a popcorn kernel in my daughters nose could remind me of a simpsons episode...but I hope unlike Homer, she has learned her lesson.

Flat stanley...the stow-away..

This is Flat Stanley...at least one created by my youngster. He's reading all the flat stanley books and we decided last year to create one of our own before we vacationed in Hawaii. Well who knew that this flat stanley would be such an adventurer...He travelled all the way to Peru, stowed away in my carry on bag. We had such a great trip...hence why my blog has been dead for awhile now, we've been gone. We landed in the huge city of Lima and from there our adventure started. Traveling to Lima from Houston is about a six to seven hour flight. We stayed one night in Lima and then took a six hour van ride to Jauja...a small village or town south east of Lima. Spent four or so days there and then travelled another five to six hours south to a small village in the mountains called Cceccasiri. Where we stayed with a family for two days. Then headed back to Lima in a ten or so hour van ride. It was quite the adventure. Flat Stanley has now returned back home and is quite content still packed away in my unpacked backpack. I think he's waiting for his next adventure. During our time in the smaller villages and towns we worked with the kids in the schools and outside of the schools singing with them, doing crafts and putting on puppet shows. We played games with them and tried to talk to spanish to them...which was sometimes difficult. But seeing their faces, teaching them and spending time with them is rewarding.

So that is my little blurb for now...until I figure out what else to write about...

Complete Randomness today....

I was just clicking some pictures today...Above my caramel machiatto from Starbucks...it was delicious because it had not one, not two but three shots of espresso in it...xtra caffiene...much needed.

My neighbors ladder....I think he was taking down his christmas lights....maybe...

A tree branch on my tree in my front yard. I wanted to see how far I could zoom in before the picture was blurry and it did a pretty good job, this tree branch was pretty far away...so yes this is pretty random today...