Guns and Porn

2008-11-19T19:23:00.002-06:00

Hey, a photo of mine got published. Check it out at this site.

Tattoo Parlor

2008-08-21T16:21:00.003-05:00

Why do they call it a parlor anyway? So, we went to eat on the east side of town on 080808. I wanted to get some pictures. Across the street from the restaurant was this place. I wanted to take a picture of the outside but there were folks hanging out outside. I was too self conscious or embarrassed to take a picture with them there. My husband asked me to ask them to show me their ink. So hip, he is. They couldn't hear or understand me, so I had to walk over to talk to them and we - including my 2 young kids, ended up in the place. They could not have been nicer. The lady above is also on a roller derby team. They gave albums of their work to the kids to look at. Great. When we left, my son said, "I can't believe you took us to a tattoo place." I couldn't either. The photos are blurry because of the light. I try not to use the flash. I guess I should have. I have to do some research on what the name of the place was. I'll get back to you.

Elementary school open house tonight. School starts Monday. Not a day too soon, let me tell you.

Update: It is called Telepathic Tattoo. They couldn't tell me why. Anybody know?

Avatar

2008-08-15T08:59:00.002-05:00

I finally succomed and got an avatar. Not sure about the boobs...although they are the most accurate part of it.

Out Visiting

2008-07-18T11:04:00.001-05:00

N. Lamar, Ausin TX
Originally uploaded by helen clark

H accompanied me to visit with my CASA family last night. On the way I took pictures of some abandoned buildings. I love old and neglected buildings.

Blogging is harder than I thought

2008-05-07T15:43:00.003-05:00

Can't even remember what my last post was about. I saw Heather on the Today Show and got inspired. Her segment was on mommy bloggers, but I really don't think of her as a mommy blogger. I think she is more of a life blogger.

My CASA case is going nuts. The mom is a crack addict, who goes from drug rehab to drug rehab, either getting kicked out of or quitting each of them for various reasons. I don't think she has told me the truth once. She recently announced that she was pregnant. Do I even believe that? It takes up a lot of my time.

H and I are also on the board of our kids' swim team. Sounds so impressive. We do the computers. Have you ever been involved in a swim team? The computer job is a big deal. You enter in all the kids in their events and print out stuff to run the race. I really don't know what I am doing 100%. Our first meet is Friday and I should be pretty clear on it all by then.

My sister in law was in line to adopt a baby through an agency. She got a call that a mother had picked her and her husband to adopt her baby. Yeah! Less than a week later, the birth mom went in to early labor in Austin, where we live. They do not live here. She had the baby and the adoption went through. However, although the baby is a very healthy premature baby, it is still in the neonatal intensive care unit. To top things off, her H is in the coast guard and had to leave for a tour (is that what it is called?) and won't be back for a month. My sister in law is a bit overwhelmed. I am thrilled to have another nephew. He is almost 4 pounds and is of hispanic descent. We celebrated Cinco de Mayo in his honor this year.

Ball Dropper

2008-04-08T18:12:00.007-05:00

I am a ball dropper. I am a little worried that I am going to drop one soon. I volunteer in a lot of places. I shouldn't really. I recently became a CASA. That's a court appointed special advocate for children that have been taken away from home, or are being monitored by, Children's Protective Services. My first case involves a family with 4 children, the youngest is one and the oldest almost seventeen. The mother abuses drugs. There are so many people involved, I hope I can do the case justice.

I notice a theme on these blogs written by mothers - they are often tired. So, I hesitate to even mention how tired I am. I think that's the main reason why I don't sit down and write a post. Being tired leads me to the conclusion that our family is boring. I just can't remember the funny stuff. So here are some of the highlights from the week or so, that I don't think I've shared.

My daughter was in a school play. She did a great job. H was almost late to the first performance because I told him the wrong time. As a result, he didn't have time to get flowers. We knew we had to get flowers. But really, wasn't it more important for him to see the play? Afterwards, she was upset that we didn't get her flowers. I totally laid the blame on myself, but she wouldn't let it go. There were only 2 performances, so I told her probably, not as many people would get flowers the next day. In addition, we thought that we should go out to eat afterwards. The cool places close to our house would probably be really crowded, with a wait, so my husband and I decided on Wendy's (and because it's cheap). When we got there, she was incredulous. In the parking lot, she was all, I can't believe that we are eating at Wendy's after my play. The last time she was in a play we went to a fancy reservation restaurant. With my parents. I emphasized the last part. H and I laughed. That's the breaks. She didn't want my parents coming. I guess my daughter is a drama queen. She wouldn't let it go. When we got into Wendy's, one of our neighbor families (whose daughter was in the play too) was there. I said look, we are not the only ones eating here. I was glad we weren't too out of line with our cheapness.

It doesn't end there. The next day I brought flowers, but they weren't good enough, or rather I should say, there weren't enough of them. Some of the girls had lots of bouquets. I pointed out that they had lots of relatives there, and some of them had divorced parents. But by this day, I was ignoring her behavior pretty well. She eventually thanked me for the flowers. Oh- she even complained that we hadn't put well wishes into the program for her - but we had. She was almost a caricature of a demanding diva!

My son's birthday was this weekend and we had a sleepover party. They were supposed to sleep in a tent outside, but they thought that they heard a snake and slept inside - starting after 1 am. Then they woke up early. My daughter was home and was just as tired as everybody. By that evening, close to bedtime, she was freaking out, yelling and crying about a TV misunderstanding. I usually do a pretty good job of containing my amusement at her overreaction in these types of circumstances, but perhaps because I was so tired too, I burst out laughing. I tried to cover my mouth but I just thought it was sooo funny. I think her hormones are partly to blame for her meltdowns nowadays. It was a horrible display of parenting.

My son is getting just a little better at getting his homework done, what with my new restrictions in place. It still could be a lot better. I hope someday I will laugh at this too.

Oh, I almost forgot, H was featured on Bitstrips.com. We were very excited. He has been getting a lot of followers on Twitter and we think that is why. It's funny that we would wonder why people would be interested in him. The link is not working. I'll check on it later. I think I've said enough for today. Don't get me started, I guess.

Pattern/Repetition

2008-04-04T07:03:00.004-05:00

Here is my submission for the photography assignment over at Miriam Lovell Photography. We went bowling this week. I love patterns and repetition in photography.

Baking

2008-04-02T12:16:00.005-05:00

Today, apparently, is baking day at my house. I made several loaves of my Chocolate Zucchini Bread (which my kids and H love) and am currently making Lemon Bars. I've made the bread lots of times, but I'm not sure that I've ever used this recipe for Lemon Bars. I improvised a bit and added some Lemoncello to the batter. We'll see how that tastes. Here is the recipe for the bread.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

3 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups grated, unpeeled zucchini

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

In a large mixing bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla. Beat on low speed until blended. Than add the zucchini and the cooled, melted chocolate. (If you add the chocolate while it is too hot, it will scramble the eggs.) Stir these things together.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add this dry mixture, the chocolate chips and nuts (optional) to the egg mixture. Stir just enough to blend in the dry ingredients.

Pour the batter into a greased and floured 9x5 loaf pan. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 60-70 minutes.

I got my Photoshop Elements Now I'm trying to figure out how to use it. I also purchased the Digital Photography books written by Scott Kelby. They are fabulous. I am waiting to get his Elements 6 book. None of the bookstores in town seem to have it yet. The hints on the Pioneer Woman's blog have been helpful. The funny thing is, there always seems to be some problem relating to this photography thing. Maybe it's because we have never really immersed ourselves in it so much, but when I went to print out some of my pictures to see how they looked, we couldn't get the printer to take the photo paper. So I printed them on white cardstock. I use the term "we" because H is the technical guru in this family. He can solve (almost) any technical problem. The exception seems to be the storage of my photos on the MacBook.

Elements

2008-03-30T19:53:00.005-05:00

So, Friday night my daughter was in a school play. When we got home, there was a note on the door from FedEx. 6:41 p.m. Who delivers that late? They require a signature for the Photoshop Elements. So annoying. I could have been working on it all weekend. Alas, I'll be driving to Round Rock tomorrow morning to pick it up.

Photoshop Elements Where are You?

2008-03-28T11:11:00.002-05:00

I can't wait to get the new Photoshop Elements. I don't have the old version, I just ordered the one that was supposed to come out in March. I still don't have it. I have lots of photos I want to practice with. This one was taken near La Grange, Texas - close to the "shack outside La Grange."

Exhausted

2008-03-27T18:59:00.006-05:00

I feel like today was the worst day. I am exhausted. My son is difficult. He refuses to do things that we want him to do and/or that he needs to do - like school work. My husband (H) and I fight about it. Nanny 911, as silly as it is, really inspires me. H refuses to watch it. Every time I see it (which is not every week - I don't seek it out), I get ideas. First of all, it always seems like the parents are at odds over disciplining the children. So I tried to focus on that today and told H that I would handle things and if he disagreed with me, to talk to me outside of the presence of the children. It was hard for him, I believe. There was lots of screaming (by my son and not us, for a change). Another thing I notice on the show is that, when putting the kids to bed (repeatedly), the parents are told to just take the kids back to bed and not to say anything to them (after the first time of putting them to bed). We don't have a problem with bedtime, but we do have a problem with the kids (both of them) doing their homework. I've already said that. So I figured, first of all, they should do it at the kitchen or dining room table. Since my son will not stay there, I (and H) just kept bringing him back. He is almost 80 lbs. We have to carry him back to the table over and over again. For hours this happened and while he was at the table he just sat there - either complaining, doing nothing or crying. Eventually he did his work. Most of it anyway. But I am mentally and physically exhausted.

Now, I don't want to leave my daughter out of it. Part of the problem now with both of the kids, is that the grading period is over Friday. Both of them have missing work. My daughter frequently says that she doesn't have homework, when in fact she does. Today she acted like she didn't have any missing work, when I knew she did - the teacher and I had talked about it after school and he had given me a list of missing assignments and she had stayed in from recess every day this week to do her missing work. She had not told us that. So she walks in the door and I ask her about the work, she acts like she does not have any and when I present to her what the teacher wrote down, she freaks out crying.

After she got herself together, she looked through her work and saw that she had turned most of it in - her teacher had initialed her work. So, she only has one thing left. I feel like crying.

NOT about guns and porn

2008-03-26T06:17:00.001-05:00

I got the title idea the other day when my daughter wanted to have a sleepover with a girl whose family I did not know well. She was already over at the house with her friends and I said to my husband, that I hoped they didn't have any guns or porn - both things I have heard and know can have long lasting affects on kids. So there you have it. Sorry if you are searching for porn on the internet. Go spend time with your family.