A few of my faves....

This weekend when I wasn't by Lt. Dangle's side, I was at the computer viewing, sorting, organizing, deleting, editing, and ordering my last SIX MONTHS of photos.

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!

Never again will I let it go that long because it was some serious and time consuming WORK. There was once a time when I purchased photos monthly and I'm bound and determined to reinstate that method.

As I was looking through photo after photo, I realized that many of my very favorites were the most candid, just a moment caught in time, and not the ones that were perfectly in focus and had someone looking straight at the camera posing.

Here are some of my all time faves and the reasons why I love them!

This one dates further back more than 6 months ago, but I love it and will always love it. Stephen Grade skiing. He's a rock star on skis and this picture captures that perfectly. {Sara Walker - if you're reading- I'm pretty sure you took this one summer of 2006}

Stephen Small in April '10 playing in the park. You can't see his face, but you can still see him. I could pick this photo out of 100,000 photos of the backs little boys and recognize him as Stephen Small.

LOVE LOVE LOVE this one with the fan. I think it is so cool that Smalls is in the bokeh with a little smile of exhilaration at the air blowing in his face. After taking this one early this past summer, I tried the rest of the summer to get one just like this but in better focus. Months out from taking it, I really like the blurriness.

Here's another with S.S. in the bokeh. I don't know for sure what time of day this was taken, but I can tell by the way he's so intently focused on his drink that it was probably after nap time. Talk about the day in day out - this is IT for me, filling and refilling sippy cups.

Here I like the fact that they are not looking at the camera and the fact that Stephen Grande kind of has his tongue sticking out a little. That is something Stephen Small does all the time when he's concentrating. It's funny to see a glimpse of Grande doing the same thing.

Love the eyelashes and the angle....

Nervous smile on my wedding day. I think its cool that a few of the bridesmaids and groomsman are in the background unaware of the picture taking. {May 2006}

Totally candid here and having fun at the lake {once again - summer '06 - a good summer}. I initially thought this picture was a FAIL because of the sun, but now I think it just adds to the awesomeness.

My conclusion: The best pictures are not necessarily perfect, but the ones that capture life. I forget that a lot.

Happy Halloween

From your favorite waffle house waitress and Lieutenant Dangle.

For the record, I have the utmost respect for the Waffle House staff. I borrowed the costume from a friend who actually worked there one summer. She said she made a killin'.

Hemming Lieutenant Dangle's shorts was my nap time project. He wanted them shorter, but I refused. I insisted he pull them down a bit for the picture. These modesty issues I expected to have with a teenage daughter one day, but not with Stephen Grande. Who is this man?

Routine Check-ups

Hello internet friends! Life is busy. I almost hesitate to say that because I know everyone is SO busy. Its the American way and I guess we are no exception. It seems like we've had something on the calendar every single day for I can't remember how long. On my agenda this week has been taking two thirds of our little fam {myself and S. Small} to the doctor. Thankfully it was all for routine check ups. Wednesday I had my blood glucose test at my 28 week OB appointment. Y'all, I failed, with flying colors. Stephen Grande keeps joking with me that I've got the DIA-beat-is (please tell me you've seen the commercial). So...............I'm signed up to take the 3 hour blood glucose follow up test next week. {This is all screening for gestational diabetes if you're not familiar with this medical jargon.}  Let's hope I don't have the DIA-beat-is because if so, literally, a spoonful is going to get pretty boring for a while. See ya later pumpkin cake, hello whole wheat toast and hard boiled eggs.

Stephen Small's appointment was this morning {18 month check up} and went a little better than mine. He had a blast in the waiting room - no one was in there so he had free reign. He played so hard and laughed to himself {love it when he does that} while I read some fantastic articles out of WORLD magazine. I kinda hated to leave the waiting room when they called our name. For we were having such a nice time!

Stephen Small checked out fairly average for both height and weight. He got one shot and came home worn slap out. He's so precious. I love him. And I'm deeply grateful to God for his good health.

Well, that's all for today. Time for our next thing - eating pizza with friends and putting together missionary care packages for the holidays! Yay.

My Mommer n' Nem

My Mommer n' Nem {translation: my mama, aunt, and two good friends} have come and gone to town. The reason for their visit was to see the lovely and talented author, Jan Karon, speak at my church as part of her promotion tour for her newest book, In the Company of Others. She is most well known for the Mitford series which is a most delightful read (9 books total). If you're looking for something uplifting and meaningful, I highly recommend.

The rest of mommer n' nem's stay was filled with good food, shopping, and every hair cut and doctor's appointment I could squeeze in while I had multiple babysitters.

The only time I really got camera happy was on our trip to World Market {or if your my mom - "World Bizarre"}.

May I just say I love this store!

They have everything you never needed and MORE.

I'll have you know I bought not one thing. But as you can see below, I enjoyed photographing all the COLOR.

After World Bizarre, Grand Ma Ma {Lovie} treated my Stephen Small to a cheeseburger and fries at Five Guys which he thoroughly enjoyed with large quantities of ketchup.

Mommer n' Nem - you're welcome anytime. Come back soon!

Curb Appeal

Ever since we bought our house I have dreamed of a new front door. We finally got around to replacing it a few months ago. Its amazing how one little door can totally change the look and personality of the house. I felt like the old door said "tacky people live here."

But the new door says "these people have real class." 
Introducing....new door.

Here's the old one...

It had been painted layer after layer of poor paint color choices, electric blue being the worst.

It was one happy day when the old door came down and the new one went up.

The solid wood door came from Lowes (or maybe Home Depot, I can't remember). I chose one with 9 window panes to allow some natural light in. After Stephen Grande completed his handy work by putting up the door, he gave me instructions to sand, stain, and polyurethane. It took me about 3 naptimes to get the job done.

Rubbing alcohol removed the stain easily from the window panes, but I put up painter's tape before applying polyurethane - which was less work in the end not having to scrape polyurethane off the windows.

I LOVE the finished result and think it looks great in the background of pictures!

both outside

and inside

I love a project....especially when its over.

My Blog is 2!

As I was sitting here tonight debating over whether to attempt a post or not I realized my blog is 2 years old today (October 24th), TODAY y'all!!! I nearly missed it. Click here to read my very first post. I've come a long way since then.

I want to thank each and every one of you for reading, commenting, not commenting, and following this blog as well as literally, a spoonful. I've had a blast to say the least and look forward to blogging well into my eighties and nineties. I know that blogging from the nursing home doesn't sound all that exciting now, but by the time I'm actually there many of you will be going through the same thing and just might find what blood pressure meds I'm on sort of interesting.

{photo taken August 2009}

I must confess, I thought blogs were kinda stupid before I started one. I judged my friends and thought they were freaks to put the intimate details of their lives on the world wide web. But then I found myself obsessively following and looking forward to each new post. I loved seeing the homes of out of town friends and feeling so much more connected to their daily lives. Of course you see now I'm a total blogoholic. It has become my creative outlet and has made many ordinary days just a little more exciting. Its given me a chance to share and celebrate the simple things in life! And its perfect for keeping in touch with family that lives hours and hours away.

So to all my blog and internet friends...

I love y'all.

Sincerest thanks, 

Sarah Barry

Little Arrangements

...anyone can express himself with some degree of originality in the area of flower arrangement. Every home can have something in the form of a 'flower arrangement' which is not a permanent part of the interior decoration, not a life-long treasure to be taken from home to home, but a constantly changing source of beauty, a continually fresh 'finishing touch' to the surroundings.

Edith Schaeffer, The Hidden Art of Homemaking

I'm no Martha Stewart or James Farmer, but I do like to bring a little life in my home every now and then (even if I'm the only one that cares). The best is when I can do this without spending any $$$. These three little arrangements below are all from flora in and around my yard.

Coleus, planted last spring and still blooming.

Dogwood branches. I really appreciate their speckled leaves that are just starting to change colors.

Pyracantha. There's a surplus in my neighbor's yard. It's perfect now for fall with its orange berries. They turn a true red closer to Christmas. Everything I've ever learned about this fire thorn shrub I learned from All Things Farmer. If you pick some - use sharp clippers and wear gloves. The branches have some wicked thorns.

Pine cones. I'm thinking of spray painting some gold at Christmas and putting them in a huge clear bowl.

These simple arrangements aren't much, but are a nice way to add little color and 'life' to the interior for FREE.

So go look around your yard. If you are like me, you'll find it therapeutic.

18 months, Jan, and Nursery Plans

This fine young fella is 18 months old as of yesterday. We celebrated with a much needed haircut. I made him a smoothie, strapped him down tight in his high chair, and went after his pretty red head to shape it into something decent. It's still something I'm tweaking as I see a longer strand every now and then.

I suppose 18 months is an appropriate age to drink a smoothie without the lid on the cup.

No spills.

In addition to getting a haircut, Stephen Small would love for you to know that we got a cat, a BIG one. Yes, we are cat owners. Her name is January Jones, Jan for short. We chose this name because the new baby is due in January and her fur is white like winter's snow that we rarely get here in Alabama. But anyways. The name has nothing to do with the co-star (Betty Draper played by January Jones) of the show Mad Men. We LOVE the show, er ah, I mean we would never watch such filth.

Jan was a gift from my mom and dad to the new baby, but its safe to say that Smalls has claimed her for his own. We made the mistake of teaching him to "growl like a tiger" and now that's about the only thing you'll hear out of him. Some days all he does is growl. Other days all his says is "nose."

18 month olds are HILARIOUS!!!!!

After the photo shoot with Jan and Smalls yesterday afternoon, I pulled out my fabric scraps (I know its a lot of scraps!) and began brainstorming about putting a little something together for our second child's nursery.

My plan is to use our guest room as a baby's room and then put both children together in Tiger Small's room once the baby is sleeping through the night. Our house has three bedrooms and we so love having a guest room. I want to hang onto it as long as possible. So please come stay with us - we will still have a place for you to sleep! The guest room will only be used temporarily as baby's room. At least that's what I'm hoping.

Originally I wasn't going to change one single thing about this room except for putting a crib in there, but now that the baby is getting closer I feel an overwhelming urge to prepare and decorate a space for this precious new family member.

Here's a little peak at what's coming together...
hope to finish it up next week and there will definitely be a post about it.

Be back soon.
Have a great Thursday!