He's Home!!

Someone pinch me! Please! After a long 5 1/2 month deployment, my honey is home!!! Homecomings almost make deployments worth it...almost. Time stood still yesterday as we waiting in anticipation. Logan seemed oblivious to the significance of the occassion, happy to run around with the other kids. With lighting and heavy rain moving in, we had to wait it out a little longer than anticipated, but the moment was so worth it after they finally landed, canopies opened, and they waved us all through! Logan and I couldn't seem to get to Daddy fast enough. I couldn't seem to kiss him long enough, or to see his eyes through my own tears to really know that he is there, standing in front of me grinning from ear to ear. It took Logan the walk back to the hangar to realize who was standing with us. Once he realized it was "Daddy", Mommy just faded to the background and took it all in. I melted to see Logan reach for him and insist that Andy hold his hand as they walked around the hangar. Logan wasn't even a year old when his daddy left and my one true fear was that he wouldn't remember who he is. Logan definitely proved me wrong. Today they laid on the floor and played cars together while I watched in pure joy.

**A special thank you to Cara who, despite being sick, made it out to capture these wonderful memories for us! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Cara!!!

Ball of Energy!

This little man ran circles around us today! I don't know how Heather and Ronnie keep up with him! He is definitely full of life and energy and always knows how to bring a smile to everyone. After a bit of flirting, he even managed to win over the lady in the cafe and got a big spiral lolipops from her! Thank you Heather and Ronnie for the fun afternoon! I hope you enjoy your teaser pics!

Going BIG!

I've been inspired to go BIG! What do you think? Check out the dragonfly picture below to see what I'm talking about. The smaller pictures just weren't working. I'm still working out some kinks...like how can I keep the image from linking to the photobucket account (and dragging you to the online album if you happen to click on it) but still keep the image big? Anyone have any ideas? I wish I was more technologically savvy.

A Dragonfly Story

The Dragonfly

Once, in a little pond, in the muddy water under the lily pads, there lived a little water beetle in a community of water beetles. They lived a simple and comfortable life in the pond with few disturbances and interruptions.

Once in a while, sadness would come to the community when one of their fellow beetles would climb the stem of a lily pad and would never be seen again. They knew when this happened; their friend was dead, gone forever.

Then, one day, one little water beetle felt an irresistible urge to climb up that stem. However, he was determined that he would not leave forever. He would come back and tell his friends what he had found at the top.

When he reached the top and climbed out of the water onto the surface of the lily pad, he was so tired, and the sun felt so warm, that he decided he must take a nap. As he slept, his body changed and when he woke up, he had turned into a beautiful blue-tailed dragonfly with broad wings and a slender body designed for flying.

So, fly he did! And, as he soared he saw the beauty of a whole new world and a far superior way of life to what he had never known existed.

Then he remembered his beetle friends and how they were thinking by now he was dead. He wanted to go back to tell them, and explain to them that he was now more alive than he had ever been before. His life had been fulfilled rather than ended.

But, his new body would not go down into the water. He could not get back to tell his friends the good news. Then he understood that their time would come, when they, too, would know what he now knew. So, he raised his wings and flew off into his joyous new life!

~Author Unknown~

Beach Recipe

Dinner time Beach Picnic Recipe:
1 large beach blanket
Picnic basket full of grilled chicken, potato salad, green beans, lemonade, and wine...
Red flip cups
Beach towels
2 moms, 2 kids, 1 rambunctious lab
Sunset
Camera

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Luke gathered...baby crabs, seaweed, horseshoe crab skeletons, and seashells. Logan explored...the waves, the sand, wet toes, small dunes, a bucket and a shovel, our beach neighbors fishing. A serene evening spent watching pure joy. Yes, the food was covered in sand as little boys couldn't keep gritty arms from flailing about, the wine was spilled, and the dog had to be scolded numerous times for being the beach idiot but we laughed and enjoyed each other. And as a bonus, I got to take a few pictures of my peanut.







Here's an editing tip for anyone who doesn't know of it yet. I was so dissapointed when I first took a look at the photo above and noticed his little right food was cut off! Arggh, I hate when I do that! I had a similar picture of him, a few frames down, so I changed the canvas size of the picture so it basically put a white border on the side of the frame to make it bigger. Then I used the quick selection tool in photoshop and selected the foot and a little of the area around it from the "good foot" picture. Then I copied and pasted onto this photo and used the "Free Transform" option under the edit menu to move it around, make it bigger, etc until it matched the placement of where the foot would have gone. You can change the opacity also so you can see the old foot below the layer to help you resize and reposition. Then I just erased away anything that overlapped and looked funky! Lastly I used the clone stamp to fill in the rest of the white space that went up the left side of the frame. Did you catch all that? You can also use this trick to replace closed eyes, smiles, or pretty much anything else that you can think of. Happy editing!

-ukie

Life is keeping me busy. We started a summer tradition of having my nephew Luke here in Virginia for a few weeks. This is our 2nd year. Last summer Logan was too little to realize he even had a house guest, but this year is a whole other ballgame. Logan affectionatly calls his big cousin "Ukie" and the boys have busy making mischief, hunting bugs and wearing each other out!