All Zipped Up

Wow! We just Zipped through the alphabet with Martha and her A-Z Photo Challenge! If you missed out on any entries you can view my alphabet here.

Zig Zag

Zany!  Haden was little here!

ZZZZZZ - I know there's nothing really special about this photo to you guys, but I pulled it from my archives. The little black dog is Brodi as a puppy, the middle dog is my sweet JoZe God-rest-her-soul, and the lightest one is Fibi, and the oldest at 4 years old.

Double ZZ Highway!  Taken while Zipping down the road.

Zipper!

Thanx Martha for all the fun!!!

Backyard Birding

I love sitting and watching the birds at the feeders.

I took these as our days started warming and the snow began to melt, exposing hidden seeds, and attracting the Redpolls. Btw, our snow is almost completely gone from our yard now, only a tiny little pile remains.

It amazed me that she kept creeping closer to me.

And the Cardinal played peek-a-boo, the big fraidy cat.

I kept looking for a male Redpoll and finally found one. He wasn’t as friendly as the female.

But he was entertaining.

Graffiti Ruins

A couple of weeks ago we decided to get our exercise by hiking up (and back down) the two highest peaks in Ashland County. Don’t worry they weren’t that high, we are in Wisconsin after all. But there were ruins along the way from the old mines that once existed there.

I had fun playing in the ruins while Dennis searched for the geocache.

I thought it rather amusing that I had to hike a couple of miles to find graffiti when someone else seems to find it all around her easily enough.

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Chaos is Bliss (?)

I hope your week has been full of bright, sunshiney days!  I've been feeling just a little unmotivated and overwhelmed.  So, what do you do when you're in a funk?  I have to admit that while cleaning my windows (inside and out) made my house sparkle it fill me full of songs of cheer.  Ideas?  Thanx!

Chaos abounds in typical fashion.  And I've been doing good at sticking to my diet, but my bum is still sore from that 30 mile bike ride and exercise has been hard to fin this last week.  I've only lost 1 measly little pound in the last two weeks!  I find that frustrating and disheartening but I keep telling myself that it's okay and the pounds will eventually keep falling if I keep sticking to my program.  Right?

cell phone picture - sorry for quality

Haden had a little red spot on his knuckle a few weeks ago.  It disappeared after a few days but then about a week later it came back.  We all assumed a bug bite, maybe a spider bite?  We kept watching it, and trying neosporin and benedryl.  Well over the last few days it has gotten worse, spreading into the second finger and getting redder and some purple.  So yesterday I took him to the doctor.  She did some blood work and he goes back next Tuesday.

So far, all we know is that it is not a bacterial infection or spider bite.  It may be lymes disease or something else.  She said some of the blood tests take 48 hours to get back so we really won't know for a few days.  The immediate CBC showed low white blood cell count, low enough that they redid the count manually. . .not sure what that means.  But it has me just a little bit stressed out.  A momma always worries.   His birthday is tomorrow - my baby, the youngest of them all will be 17 years old tomorrow.  Wow I'm old!

Boy those birds look peaceful.  Maybe I just need to be a bird for a while.  I've had slooow internet, and did I mention motivation issues, bad hand kid, too much to do and not enough time to do it,  headaches, taxes, chaos in my life, the last few days so I'm really behind in making my rounds, but trust me, I'm coming asap.  Does it count as complaining is I strick it out?

Some days I would love to fly away.

Maybe find somewhere peaceful to hole up for a bit and rejuvenate.  So, what is it that you do to conquer the blahs, lack of motivation, chaos, overwhelmedness, life?  Can you share your secrets?

Daffodil Promises

Macro Monday Music

Macro Monday is easy to play, snap a macro (or any close-up) photo, post it on your blog and come back here and sign Mr Linky. Don't forget to visit each other. :)

I love to listen to my iPod nano while working out. However, I could not figure out how to turn the volume up, I had to ask my son. Turns out it was pretty simple.

These headphones sound great!

We conquered the circle

First, before anything else, I have to tell you that all the photos in this post were taken with my little point and shoot and I am not happy, at all, with the quality, but I did not feel like lugging the huge camera along. You’ve been warned.

We had this brilliant idea to travel the Green Circle Trail yesterday. Last year we only got our bikes out one day and it rained on us. So we decided that we would conquer all 30 miles of the trail. Sounds simple enough, right? This was about mile 6, and that’s Haden back there. I shot this without looking, just held the camera over my shoulder while I was pedaling away. So that might have something to do with the quality? . . .Nah.

We’re about 7.5 miles on our journey here, and I had to stop and go back to snap the fire hydrant. It had us shaking our heads. There’s a river to our right and woods to our left and well, a fire hydrant. What the heck?

There were little patches of snow in the trail and well mud and bike wheels, well you know where the mud ends up. We came home looking like we’d pooped our pants, lol.

Have you seen the movie, “Yes Man”? We laughed so hard about the running and photography combo. Let me say that it inspired me to snap while riding today and while it was fun, I don’t think it was very good, probably not even average.  But this photo makes me laugh because you can't see Haden's bike and it looks like he's a mime. :)

That hill doesn’t look as big from the top as it did while I was trying to pedal up it.

About halfway there - 15 miles.

Mile 26 - We had a truly great day! It was 54 degrees, sunny, and nice! But by this point in the trail we were ready to be home, our bums hurt - and still do. We never thought we’d ride the entire trail, but now we’re thinking we’ll do it every week or two.

Then we’ll sleep like babies.

It was a much nicer day than about a week ago when we went caching. Just look at the snow - can’t you tell it was cold? I did cross the log with Dennis the day before, but this particular day I decided to just wait until he came back.

And take a self portrait.

And some cool fungus.

HAPPY EASTER!! And Mom, if you read this - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  Eat some cake for me. :)