Day 151

Today we drove to Waco to see more family in honor of Jenny's graduation. I got this picture of her in front of a restaurant. I pretty much woke her up this morning and said, "Let's go," so she didn't have on any makeup or anything. I think she is so pretty !



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Day 150

Anna's current obsession is watching baby doll commercials on YouTube. She is getting very proficient with the mouse and navigating! She was so cute sitting on the edge of my office chair Sunday morning that I had to snap a picture (with Jenny's new camera!).



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Day 149

Jenny graduated from high school today!!! It was an amazing day, full of friends and family. We were so surprised to see all of Jenny's dad's family from Corpus Christi at the ceremony! I couldn't believe they drove all the way here just for the commencement. This is a picture of Jenny walking out after getting her diploma and seeing me, Curtis, my mom, my MIL, my FIL, her dad, her Gram, her aunt, uncle, and cousin, and all of her friends. I am sooooo incredibly proud of her. I took this picture with Jenny's graduation gift... a Nikon D90! She was thrilled!



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Day 148

Today was the last day of school and of course I had to come to Anna's end-of-the-year party. This is a picture of Anna with Mrs. Moreno, who is her special ed teacher (for reading and writing) as well as Anna's case manager and team leader with the educational team. She is fantastic! She researches strategies to help Anna self-manage and she genuinely loves my little girl. I'm so glad she gets to work with Anna every year on her IEP goals and I'm even more glad to call her a member of our "family" now.



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Day 147

I was too tired to post this last night, sorry about that! In honor of Jenny's graduation from high school tomorrow, my mother-in-law and her dear friend are here from Ohio. We took them out to the Oasis on Lake Travis for dinner last night. It's a beautiful restaurant set in the hillside with multiple levels of decks extending all the way down to the lake. Unfortunately it started pouring rain as soon as we got there and we had to move inside for dinner but after we finished eating, the sun came out and I was able to get a picture of the lake and the sunset. Pretty, eh?



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Day 146

Today was kindergarten recognition day at the elementary school. Dominic was so proud to get his certificate announcing that he has successfully completed kindergarten. I am so proud too!



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Day 145

Tuesday afternoon brought a friend over to play and we ended up painting. It's so rare to have Anna and Dominic do something together and I love this shot of them both creating their little paintings. I love them so.



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Day 144

Anna pulled out our old box of dress-up playthings from the closet tonight. I created that box of costumes and trinkets when she was 5 and Dominic was 2 to encourage them to play imaginatively together. We haven't touched that box in at least a year! Anna created this get-up with the blonde wig, fairy princess hat, and heart glasses. I love how her natural hair is showing at her shoulders, ha! I like the movement in the picture too... how the tulle from the hat and her natural hair is flipping to the right while her eyes look to the left. Dominic had fun dressing up in the Batman cape and I think he'll be wearing it again tomorrow... he seemed to like his superpowers a little too much.



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Day 143

Playing outside at a local playscape reminded me to make Dominic unplug from the electronics every once in a while and just be a kid. He had just come down the slide here... the photo captures everything I could say in words.



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Day 142

Monday marks our 13th anniversary. To celebrate, Curtis and I went out on a real date tonight, Saturday night, just like real grown-ups. There is a new cinema in town called Gold Class where they have luxury recliners and private waiters as well as gourmet food. It was ridiculously overpriced but since we only go out like this about once a year, it was totally worth it. We saw Iron Man 2 and the entire experience was amazing. I didn't want to be that tacky woman taking pictures in the theater so I had to snap this shot of the theater's bathroom... so upscale, yes? We were greeted at the front desk, they pulled up our reservation and then sat us in their swanky lobby. We ordered cocktails then were escorted to our seats. The entire theater only has about 50 seats and your dinner is served to you during the movie. If you need anything at all, including a pillow and blanket, you simply hit a little button and someone appears instantly. I fully reclined in my comfy chair and found myself dozing off... almost a little comfortable! Ha! Thanks to my mom for babysitting and thanks to my husband for a wonderful evening.



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Day 141

If you've been reading Elusive Tranquility, you'd know that Anna met a chinchilla at PetSmart on Saturday and fell in love. She wanted a real one of course, but we found a plush toy online for just $4 and she was soon happily doing chores to earn the money to buy it. By Sunday afternoon, the chinchilla was ordered and then the tortuous wait began. To say she was obsessed with when it was coming would be a gross understatement. Finally, every adult in her life heaved a huge sigh of relief today... the chinchilla arrived! The entire week was worth it (well, almost) to see this priceless smile on her face.



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Day 140

Yay! We've been waiting for the ice cream truck to come. AnnaBV Designs has created an ice cream truck digital scrapbooking kit at my request and it will be released at ScrapOrchard on May 28th. I've been waiting and waiting for the ice cream truck to come to get the perfect pictures. I have lots more piccies but those are going in my layout. Dominic got the cookie ice cream sandwich... he is so funny, he always just wants to giant cookies on the outside and never eats the ice cream!



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Day 139

I finally finished and printed my mom's gift for mother's day (a 12x12 layout with all three kids featured) and had to find a frame. That meant a trip to the craft store! I love browsing through this store, it ratchets up my creativity and makes me hungry to create.

Mom loved her gift, by the way.



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Day 138

At the beginning of kindergarten, Dominic didn't want anything to do with writing or drawing. It was a chore to get him to write his name! Now he is not only enjoying writing and drawing, he does it spontaneously and does it well too. I'm so proud of his progress! Way to go, Dominic!



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Day 137

I know this isn't a terribly exciting picture or even one that has any artistic attributes, but it represents an important step in my life. I went back to Weight Watchers on Saturday and I am very excited to be taking control of this aspect of my life. Living with fibromyalgia has been especially challenging considering Anna's special needs and I have relied far too long on eating for comfort instead of for health. I hope by the end of the year I can share some before and after photos to celebrate this journey and that my daily pain level will be manageable again.



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Day 136

Today Jenny got baptized. It was amazing and I got some beautiful, powerful, and spiritual photos (they're in my Flickr Photostream... here's the slideshow, if you want to take a look). I love this photo of Dominic and wanted to share it too as my photo of the day today. He was literally jumping for joy and I got it, I captured it!



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Day 135

Anna and I played at my mom's house this afternoon and I found a new cat toy unopened on the table. Of course, I had to open it and give it to Mystery. He went crazy for it! After looking at the packaging, I realized it had catnip in it which led me to wonder what in the heck is catnip anyway?! I'm so glad I brought my camera... it's hard to get a good picuture of Mystery and those eyes are worth remembering!



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Day 134

Dominic was having so much fun playing in the tub tonight. Why do boys love to spit? I've never understood that. He was happy that I got some spitting pictures and I was happy that I got a smiling one. I love this age. I tried a different crop on this and it turned out very different from where I started... I think I like it.



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Day 133

Just an ordinary day here today. I like those. Dominic drew the universe with sidewalk chalk and I almost posted that today but what I wanted to remember more was the way he looked when he told me, "Wait a minute, mommy. I want to finish this asteroid belt." When he's really excited about something, he twists his mouth sideways a bit and does this little smirky smile... and it gets my heart every time. I almost got it captured but I can see it playing around the corners of his mouth here. I love love love this boy!



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Day 132

Tonight, Jenny's youth group at church had senior night in honor of upcoming graduation. Curtis and I got to attend (thank you for babysitting, mom!) and I was really touched by how loved Jenny is there. The seniors got up in front of the group with a microphone and a spotlight and spoke about their relationship with God and their plans for after graduation. Jenny was so poised and well-spoken, and I could not be prouder of her.

This picture is of her and Chris outside the church. I used Paint the Moon's Sea Delight action to add some depth and emotion.



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Day 131

The second graders went on a field trip to our local zoo today and I went along so that I could drive Anna (she has a huge fear of school busses). It was a tough day in many ways which I started to write about on my blog but ran out of steam. I'll finish that up tomorrow but wanted to share this sweet picture of Anna looking at the pot-bellied pigs... one of her current obsessions. I love how only her one hand is in focus.



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Day 130

Dominic was playing with the sidewalk chalk this afternoon and when he got up to play "tennis" with us (Anna and I just hit a badminton birdie back and forth and call it tennis, lol), I noticed his jeans all covered with chalk dust. It struck me as such a symbol of childhood play that I had to get a picture.



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Day 129

For Mother's Day, the whole family went to the Waco Zoo. It was my first time there but Curtis has taken the kids before. What a gorgeous zoo! I was really impressed. I especially liked all of the plexiglass enclosures; it really allowed us to have personal experiences with the animals. When Anna stepped near this window, this orangutan came over to see her. I love how you can see her expression reflected in the glass and how intently the organutan is looking at her. It was so cool!



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Day 128

Taking a deep breath, I decided to take both Anna and Dominic to the grocery store by myself this afternoon. 7 times out of 10, that decision is one I regret. Today was perfection... they were both so well-behaved and sweet. We had so many groceries to get that Anna pushed a second cart for me. She didn't bump into anyone! I was really impressed. So at the end of the trip, they got to pick out some cookies to take home and here Dominic is blowing me a kiss and Anna is in the background.



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Day 127

One of the girls that came to our babydoll party came over to play with Anna this afternoon! YAY! They played babydolls all afternoon and when she left, I found Audrey all dressed up and sitting in the grocery cart (they pretended to go to the store, tee hee). I'm so excited that Anna has a new friend. Woohoo!

I shot this picture completely manually, I'm so proud of myself. I set the white balance by measuring the tone with a white piece of paper, I set the ISO and shutter speed, I even edited the picture completely without actions. This one is all me, baby!



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