have you met my daughter...

Katniss Everdeen...and her invisible bow and arrow? Very lethal...

Isaiah 11:6   The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.

Or something like that...

What really goes on at the annual fall photo taking... 

 

leaves

Happy Fall!

(Did I mention my new camera...the Sweet Genius?  Color is a little off but check out those craters!)

spa deux

The girls have stepped up their home spa experience.  They've moved up from plain cucumbers on the eyes to a very messy, very sticky honey oatmeal facial mask.  The dog thought this new development was the most fabulous idea ever.  The girls liked it until they realized how much the dog liked it.  Now they just need a spa table to lay upon to put a few feet between their rejeuvenating facial mask and the dog drooling on their hors d'oeuvres-smelling faces.

 when they finally got a look at each other all gooped up...

and did I mention the super macro?

 and 30x optical zoom (Mack taken from across the yard...). 

new camera...again

I am always on the lookout for the perfect camera.  It's sort of an obsession, really.  I've had a few good ones over the years...Kodak, Canon, Olympus, Panasonic, and now, Kodak again.  Kodak is getting out of the camera biz & many of my favorite...frameable photos I've taken in my life have been taken with a Kodak.  So...I returned the beautiful, lovely, too-expensive earrings my husband gave me for our anniversary, in exchange for a new Kodak (before they're gone forever) so I can take pictures of people wearing beautiful, lovely, too-expensive earrings.  Hubby not too happy about that but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

Anyway, a new camera means weird test photos like these...

...so far so good!

lucky

I've been having amazing luck in the shopping department lately.  The other day at the grocery store, the lady in front of me couldn't decide what kind of bagels she'd like to buy.  She wasn't in the bagel department, mind you.  She was in the check out line.  In front of me.  She sent the bag boy back twice to check for certain kinds of bagels (for which she discovered she had a coupon she desperately needed to use).  This went back and forth for about 5 minutes...as my ice cream, which I had NO trouble deciding on, was melting away.  So...the manager came over and pulled my cart over to the next lane and told the clerk to give me $5 off my order.  Bam!

Then on Saturday, I bought a vacuum at Penneys.  I had a weird feeling that, with all the shenanigans Penneys is trying to pull on everyone, I should probably check somewhere else for a better price.  So...we stopped by Sears & lo and behold, there was the same vacuum for $35 less.  Score!

Today, I had a crafty feeling so I went to Michaels to get some unfinished wooden shelves for Emma's Painted Pony collection in her room.  As I was standing in line, a crafty mom/daughter duo tapped me on the shoulder and generously gave me their extra 50% off coupon.  Cha-ching!

I must be looking especially pathetic lately that people want to help me out...or I'm just extremely lucky...C'mon Lottery!!!!!

Emma's finished, unfinished wooden shelves...complete with her Painted Pony collection...(and other treasures)

The Catcher in the Rye

"...Something else an academic education will do for you.  If you go along with it any considerable distance, it'll begin to give you an idea what size mind you have.  What it'll fit and, maybe, what it won't.  After a while, you'll have an idea what kind of thoughts your particular size mind should be wearing.  For one thing, it may save you an extraordinary amount of time trying on ideas that don't suit you, aren't becoming to you.  You'll begin to know your true measurements and dress your mind accordingly..."
Aha!

I just had to grab The Catcher in the Rye from Emma's desk and pre-read it before she got much further than chapter 3.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Maybe because I didn't have to write a research paper on it after reading it.  Although I sort of felt like writing one.  And I'm not sure if I'm supposed to like it since it's been on banned books lists and censored and all, but I thought it was great... 
And I could relate to old Holden...probably a bad sign. 

Anyway, it was good I snagged it from Emma...she could probably read it now, but she'll have to wait until she's 42 to appreciate it.

makeover

We joined some of the fam for "linner" (late lunch/early dinner) at Steve's yesterday...and enjoyed his new vole-free yard makeover! Nicely done!! Just needs a few voles...I mean seeds...to brighten up the place...haha.