1-31-11 

I should be celebrating the completion of the first month of the project without missing a day. Some posted late, but always posted. Today, I am uninspired.  Here's a cute picture of the dog.  She's pretty much up my rear end at all times. For some reason, she likes to lay under my arm when I'm in the computer chair.  Maybe now that the pressure of today's picture is off my shoulders inspiration will hit me.  Don't hold your breath!

 

Sweaty Boob Money

1-30-11

This reminded me of the lady who gave me the sweaty boob money last summer. Please Lord, don't let these become popular.

1-29-11

I promise I'm not depressed or anything, it's just a great song I just happened to hear tonight. =)

1-28-11

We had dinner at a nifty little place called Dirty Franks.  Who doesn't love a reastaurant with "dirty" in the name...right?  We met up with some cool people for some great conversation (as per usual) and the best hotdogs we've ever eaten.  You can get anything from "The Glenn Beck, Just a plain, old weiner" to "The Sriracha Slaw Dog."  Highly recommended!

http://dirtyfrankscolumbus.com/ (menu online)

Thanks Kathy for taking a picture for me, you saved me when I stupidly forgot my camera. =)

Doggy Bondage?

1-27-11

If you have met our dog then you know that she is a little on the hyper side. She does a few cool tricks, but following commands?  Just not her style.  Our dear friend Duane is the owner of Peanut, the most well behaved and lovable dog I know.  He kindly suggested that we try a device called the Gentle Leader on Caper.  It's a collar that goes around her neck and her nose that should prevent her from pulling and tugging at her leash.  Caper and I took a fun trip to Petsmart last night and began her training tonight. I have had the best time tonight laughing at this stupid dog.  She's been doing flips and jumps and growling and whining and has managed to escape from this contraption four times now.  She's been giving me the evil eye all night so I took a picture.  This is Caper.....this is Caper pissed on bondage.

What Is It?

1-26-11 
This is Josh's contribution.  What is it?

Dell Meets Walt

1-25-11

Just the type of computer day I'm having.

6.19.99

1-24-11

Today my sister's blog asked us what we have done with our wedding dress.  One person commented that she liked to get hers out and try it on.  Of course this made me want to try mine on.  I am happy to announce that after about 5 minutes and with Zhoie's help, I not only got it on but we got it ZIPPED!  Woohoo!

Parent or Warden?

1-23-11

I came across the cutest thing when I was de-cluttering today. This is a card that Zhoie made for us.  None of us can remember what she did that was so horrible.

 It's hard to read, the front says: Dear mom and dad I am so sorry from what happnd a cuople minits ago

The inside text wouldn't scan at all but says:

 and I am so sorry I want my self grounded for a couple of days.  

The thought bubble says : "Help" and above the little girl in prison stripes it says "I'm funny looking"

Put A Lid On It

1-22-11

My Dadz Nutz

1-21-11

 

 

You Make Me Smile

1-20-11

Josh called me today to tell me that my photo of the day was already on the camera.  Zhoie is teaching me to use Picnik. =)

Bliss

1-19-11

A bowl of vanilla bean ice cream, one of my few pleasures on this cold and dreary day.

Happy Birthday Londyn Ella Heavener!

Spreadin' The Love

1-18-11

Earlier today I posted on Facebook that I wanted to send positive energy to everyone I love.  It seemed to be a hard day for a lot of people.  Thankfully TODAY I didn't have anything too terribly upsetting, and I wanted to share the good mood with my picture of the day. I started out with a completely different thought, that evolved into Zhoie and I taking pictures of ourselves in funky socks and that evolved into what you see.  Zhoie and I had a lot of fun taking the pictures of our feet.  We were laughing hysterically and at one point I thought she might pee on me. LOL Those pictures didn't turn out very well, but that's not the point!  Thanks to the 365 Project Z and I just spent some great time together. =)

p.s. Everyone send good vibes to Melody who is having a baby girl tomorrow. Love you Mel!

Bucket List - Kalalau Trail

1-17-11
This is my blog right? I can use it in whatever way I want?  Right? Good!  I can't upload the visions I have in my head, but I can steal photos other people have taken to show you what I see in my head.

For over a year now I have wanted to hike the Kalalau Trail on the island of Kauai, HI.  It's an 11 mile trail that provides the only land access to the secluded Kalalau Beach.  We recently watched a movie (The Perfect Getaway) that featured this trail, that plus the winter blues has reignited my yearning.  It's all I've thought about for a week. This is what I want to see in Hawaii, not a tourist trap.  I want nature and beauty!  I want to sit on a cliff with my hubby and eat MRE's (or whatever the new stuff is that tastes better) and watch the sunset. =) I can't explain why, I just want to go.....right now!

Seriously people, if I get to see a view like this with my own eyes, I may never come back. 

Look at this picture I found, rock stacks!  See, it's a sign, we're supposed to go

p.s. there are around 5 caches on the trail. =)

Remember

1-16-11

Today we visited First Responder Park in Hilliard.  It's dedicated to the first responders from September 11th.  These are pieces of steel from the World Trade Center.

 There are several walls with the names of all the fallen first responders.  It seemed endless and heartbreaking.

 It was a beautiful memorial.  May we always remember.

How Do You Spend Your Days?

 1-15-11

People often ask us why we find geocaching fun.  That's a hard question to answer because the entire experience is what makes it fun.  We have been and seen and done so many things that most people will never experience.  We've climbed killer-call 911 mountains and slid back down in rain storm.  We've stood on top of the world and seen views that the everyday traveler will never see.  We've discovered natural wonders in our own back yard.  We've been questioned by the cops more than anyone we know. =)  We have paddled and stomped through creeks to find a cache.  We've crawled and climbed and shimmied our way to a find.  We've tromped through the woods in the middle of the night following fire tacks with our geeky headlamps.  How many of you can say you've done that??? We've challenged our minds and our bodies to get a smiley.  Josh has seen wildlife. Wildlife has seen my back side running away. =) We've conquered mental and physical fears to get to a cache.  We've stopped at a Walmart light pole in every city we've visited.  We've been through mud, muck, nettles, summer storms, blizzards and bees nests.  We've discovered something about nature and our surroundings and ourselves.  We learned just how tough we and our kids really are.  We've shared the most wonderful memories with our family and with some great people who have become dear friends. 

I picked up a coat today and this fell out of a pocket.  As soon as I saw it I knew it would be my photo of the day. It's a signature coin.  A personalized wooden coin that geocachers leave in a cache to show they have been there.  This particular coin belongs to CatsInCradle and has their logo on the front.  I think the back, however, pretty much sums up geocaching for us...........

I Grow More Intense As I Age

1-14-11

For some reason our laptop doesn't always want to cooperate and yesterday I was left with no options for uploading a picture.  Knowing this, I couldn't get off my butt and get pictures taken. So  instead I played along with the new FB game and here is the cover to my first album. 

1-13-11

I'll never forget the day that Zhoie brought home a note from the school nurse informing me that I was in fact a bad mother and that my poor daughter couldn't read the board or her books.  I immediately made her an appointment to have her vision checked.

As we expected the news wasn't good, Zhoie's vision was really poor.  She was NOT happy.  We stood in Walmart (before I saw the light) Vision Center pointing at the Barbie, Mary Kate & Ashely and Hannah Montana frames my sweet little girl had tears in her eyes, and of course a good snit-fit on.

 

 My heart was breaking, she was so upset.  I offered to buy her anything and everything she wanted.  Anything to make our babies feel better...right?  I had no idea how much glasses cost, so when she picked out the MK&A super cute frames and opted for the extra scratch resistant blah, blah, blah, I wasn't all that surprised that the total was around $400. Several pair of glasses later I do realize that was an outrageous amount to pay for kids glasses. =)

It was a tense week we waited for the glasses to arrive.  We made the trip back to Walmart.  We sit down, here come the glasses, one last little whine, Mom thinks they are cute, here we go-put them on.  And that was the moment that my baby girl turned her head and looked out upon the vastness that is Walmart and a huge smile brightened her face.  She had never seen it before!  She had never seen a lot of things before, I hadn't realized, again my heart hurts.

 "There are stars on the flag!" she says with a huge smile.  The poor thing had not been able to see the stars on the gigantic 30 foot flag hanging in Walmart. And that's the moment that having glasses didn't seem so bad.  It was fun to watch her discover all the things she didn't even know she was missing. That was 8 years ago.  8 years of tumbling, cheering, hiking, sewer crawling, flipping, running, rafting, biking, playing, losing glasses. And yesterday my baby got her first set of contacts.

She's having the best time with her "naked face"  She keeps reaching up to scoot her glasses and they aren't there.  Fixing her hair is easier.  She can see straight up and down and left and right.  She will be able to swim with her infamous goober-goggles and actually be able to SEE what's under the water. It's been fun to watch her make all these discoveries. While I'm sad they aren't babies any more, I thoroughly enjoy watching them grow up. =) Love you Zho-Laur!

Who Lost Their Marbles?

1-12-11

Treasure

1-11-11
Through Geocaching we have met a lot of great people (and some not so great), two of our favorites are Jon and Kathy.  They are two of the coolest, kindest, most generous people we know.  This is a gift they gave to Zhoie this Christmas and it's has a great story that will give you goosebumps.

Before the holidays a co-worker of Kathy's was making a trip to a third world country.  (the exact country has escaped me at this moment).  Her friend was part of an organization raising money to help needy children in the country.  For each dollar he earned there were several corporations that matched it.  He asked around the office and most people gave $5-$10 for him to take with him.  Upon his return, he presented Kathy with this gift.  The child that he had sponsored was a gifted artist without the opportunity for education or lessons.  The money the man collected, along with matches, gave this girl enough money for tuition to a fancy art school where she is, at this moment,  pursuing her dreams.  In gratitude she carved and hand painted this trinket box.  The detail is amazing, it's so tiny I can believe it's hand painted.  She is truly gifted and we were so happy to hear her story.  We will treasure this treasure box always and think fondly of that little girl.  Thanks Jon and Kathy for helping to bring a little bit of sunshine to her life as well as ours.

1-10-11 Today was the day to take down the tree and clean out the old, out grown and unused.  At the beginning of the year my sister put forth a challenge to see how much each of us could donate to Goodwill.  Last week I forgot to take a picture of the load, but did remember to get a picture this week.  Btw, our ugly sweaters are in one of those bags, I'm regifting Goodwill. =)

1-9-11 Caper normally isn't a butt sniffer, but this one must have had something living in it.. =)

1-9-11 Full Rear Nudity

1-9-11 Today we made another attempt to get the boater caches on Buckeye Lake.  Unfortunately the ice wasn't thick enough.  We got within 400 feet on one of them and to stage 3 of another.  Yet another big bummer at Buckeye Lake.  Can't wait for spring to hit so we can get the canoe on the water!  While we were in the area, we headed over to Rushcreek with the McCoy family.  This picture is of a tree where we have a cache hidden.  The cache is appropriately named Colonoscopy.  After finding the cache we headed out on the lake for a nice long walk on the ice.  We made it about 1/4 mile before reaching a spot that was too thin to continue.  The girls headed back to the cars, the men headed up into the woods in search of a different cache.  So we spent a long day in the cold and snow and came home with not one single find.  The good news is that we got a little exercise and got to spend time with some great friends! A day spent outside is never a day wasted. =)

1-8-11 George and Marvin at their finest.  These girls keep us laughing. 

1-7-11 I was starting to stress out at about 10pm when I still didn't have a photo of the day.  Josh suggested I do a photo of one his small bottle collection.  That turned out to be a challenge in itself, but here it is!  Notice the blue one in the middle says "Poison."  In the event of my death please have all bottles tested. ;)

This isn't from today, but I love this picture and wanted to share.  It was taken in West Virginia.  We used to stop on every trip to gather rocks, now we also leave rock stacks when we visit.  Notice Zho's little bitty stack in the foreground with a pink flower.  Paint Creek has become a tradition for our family and holds great memories. 

1-6-11 Josh can build a mean rock stack.  This lesser rock stack, is my own amateur creation. Caper will have it destroyed by tomorrow.

1-6-11 This one is for my mother-in-law, Shelva Jean.  She cannot stand the fact that we still have a pumpkin on the front porch and it's frozen solid.  I have a feeling the Christmas tree will be put away before the pumpkin.  Maybe I'll put it in the deep freeze and keep it until next fall.  =)

1-5-11 This was a gift from a creative friend of mine, she does really cool things with beads. =)

1-4-11 I fell in love with this the moment I saw it.  It's a bowl, platter, something along those lines.  I think it would be pretty with great big pine cones in it.  Unfortunately all the stores selling pine cones at Christmas added cinnamon scent.  I can't take the smell, it makes my brain feel like it's swelling.  I'm in the woods all the time but pretty pine cones are hard to find.  Instead, it sits, looking a lot larger in our small house than it did in the big store, and I have no idea what to do with it.  But it's pretty!

1-3-11 When I woke up this Monday morning I was feeling pretty rough for my first day back to work. When I looked in the mirror I saw the worst bed head ever and started giggling. I ran and got the camera and thought I would take the worst picture ever and use it for today's photo. This evening I went back and looked at that picture, it's too hideous to share. Sorry, but it's really really really bad. On to the real picture. I've been fighting off a cold for almost two weeks. I made it through Christmas and New Year's, then this afternoon it hit. I don't go more than about 45 seconds between coughing fits. I'm about to take my trusty Mucinex and crash out. Why is it in the tree? It makes for a pretty background. =)

I shared the 365 Project with Zhoie today. She wants to start her own, keep an eye on her page for her 365 Project folder.

1-2-11 Our friend Angel invited us to a Fugly Sweater Party. It was a great time, we love to laugh and be silly. I hope we do this every year. =)

1-1-11 Caper absolutely loves to go geocaching. When she sees the gps she goes absolutely nuts. Once it's out, she keeps her eye on it. She knows that were the gps goes fun awaits. If it doesn't leave her sight, she can't miss the fun.