Meet Oliver. And you can’t really see him, but his colleague Buddy is in the background. These little guys are helping us get started with Advent. Another hair-brained idea of mine that merges “Elf on the Shelf” with an Advent calendar. For each day of Advent, these guys will appear somewhere in the house with…

Have you ever noticed how often hearts happen in nature?  Here’s a heart of stone (taken today)… Hearts in knots…  Hearts on the path… And bleeding hearts (obviously). I read something recently that said, “Even without taking pictures, carrying a camera enhances life.” I hadn’t really thought about it before. But these six photos are the…

I’m typing by the glow of our freshly decorated and totally overloaded family Christmas tree.  The boys hung many of the ornaments this year … and the kitties seemed to want to help.  They all did a beautiful job. Each ornament was carefully unwrapped with a unique story attached.  Below was handmade (paper pinecone – instructions here)….

Thank God for dirty dishes, they have a tale to tell. While in this world there’s hunger, we’re eating very well.  With home and health and happiness, we shouldn’t want to fuss. For by this stack of evidence, God’s very good to us. Among my many dirty dishes and many blessings, I’m thankful for:  Dad…

Hoping Murphy isn’t the only one who has use for the new food processor I purchased.  An ambitious purchase for someone who has never even owned an Easy Bake Oven.

To get the holidays started, the kids and I decided to adopt an animal from Farm Sanctuary. It’s an amazing cause that gives love, care and sanctuary to abused and neglected farm animals. Since we were adopting as a family, we used consensus to pick our animal. We could choose between a chicken, rabbit, goose,…

Hint of my Whoville-esque Christmas decorations. And as I suspected, it was much brighter in the daylight.  But I think I like it. The window box is stuffed! Each window has a lighted wreath and the front door has these little lighted trees on either side. I’m hoping Dr. Seuss would approve.  I’m thinking that…

Today was an odd and error-prone day of cleaning, shopping and decorating. While I was cleaning the glass patio doors from the outside, somehow the security bar for the door slipped back into place and locked me out of the house. So I had to get the spare key and let myself back in through…

On the way to work this morning, I saw a tree that appeared to be shedding its leaves. Hundreds of leaves were falling so briskly that it reminded me of a dog shaking water out of its fur after a swim. It was like the tree was surrounded by a curtain of orange and yellow….

Chalk this one up to “wish I could be there to see this one in person.” The Puya Raimondi plant near Thumi, 75 miles south of La Paz, Bolivia. It blooms every 80 to 100 years. Clearly worth the wait. (Amazing photo lifted straight from the web. Taken by Juan Karita, AP)

Did I get everything down on my Thanksgiving shopping list? I wonder if it’s going to rain. When am I going to get all of this done? I think I’ll get my hair cut tonight. Oh! Top Model is on tonight. I sure hope Chelsey goes home. She’s so mean. Wow, the sky is beautiful. …

It’s impossible to be un-cheered by a Christmas tree. Even the ones that look like Santa threw up on them. My corner grocery store has left no hall undecked, lemme tell ya. Their trees are a little overdone maybe, but I love the effort. And the bulk of the yuletide cheer is right by the front…

Long afternoon walk at Powder Valley.  Lovely light, long shadows.  (Look! I’m tall like a tree!) Kitties sprawled across my bed discouraged me from taking a nap after my walk. 

Both boys are home and birthday cake breakfast (DQ cookie dough ice cream) has been consumed. Happy house! Yay! But I realized early this morning that we didn’t have any birthday candles. So I made a quick trip to the drug store down the street… in my pajamas. Heck, I figured they wouldn’t care. They…

Hello, fall. Dude, what took you so long? I was starting to think the leaves would never turn. The chilly air made me so giddy that I typed up my Thanksgiving shopping list today.  Still playing with my new lens and film. At first, I was really digging the photo below. But the more I…

Photos from my new lens and film for the Hipstamatic. Pure happiness.  The first photo? My perfume and basket of toiletries — mousse, deodorant, that sort of thing. The second photo? A candle, velcro curlers, diet Dr. Pepper can and a hint of a necklace*. The last one? Withering bouquet of flowers in front of…

So my Drew turned 18 yesterday. A strange day for many reasons. Tanner was out of town at a school function and I had to be at work at 6:30 in the morning for an event. So my now-adult son woke up to an empty house. And to add insult to injury, he’d been really,…

Perfect “hey, doesn’t that look like….” clouds.  At one point, I’m pretty sure I saw a line of Russian dancers. 

What is it with me and road trips lately? To put this latest story into context, go to google maps before you read this and ask for directions from China to Taiwan. Look at instruction #55. Keep this in mind as you read on.   Drew and I made a quick visit to Illinois this weekend,…

 It’s pink. It’s hairless. It’s helpless. It’s amazing.  What a good mama. (Zoo Atlanta has a video of the birth on its website. They’re so awesome.)

I can’t believe it, but I realized that I started prettykitty03 two years ago today. Wow, that was fast. But somehow it seems longer… in a good way. Like I can’t remember a time that I didn’t keep a blog. It’s truly my happy place. Thanks so much for visiting and sharing it with me.

Nothing says “Monday” quite like a dashboard warning from your car that says in big, angry red letters, “STOP. Turn off engine. Oil pressure.” Oh, and this harsh message is followed by a call to the dealership that instructs you to have your car towed to the garage rather than drive and risk blowing your…

Today brought another could’ve-been-horrible-but-by-the-grace-of-God-it-all-worked-out road trip mishap. Last time it was mud. This time… well, this mishap was a little more ridiculous. As Tanner and I packed up the car at oh-gawd-o’clock this morning, I was juggling our bags to fit into the trunk. Had I actually looked where we were parked in our lovely…

The view from our hotel looks down on this beautiful little lake. It’s so peaceful and lovely. I’m not understanding the island’s footbridge, as there is no means to get to it. Seems that the ducks are the only ones who are able to take advantage of it directly. But I enjoyed it from a distance. Although…

Not too long ago, Drew mentioned that he wanted to “make a big deal” out of Christmas this year. The child clearly didn’t realize the can of worms he was opening with that declaration. But I’ve been making plans for the holidays ever since. Thanks to a long drive to Wichita for a weekend tennis…