abundant blessings

Sometimes life flies by and I have to remind myself to stop and smell the petunias. Life is so full of blessings. Today I am thankful for:

*wet puppy tongue waking me up before sunshine *sunshine on patio petunias *piles of books waiting to be read *surprise packages from my daddy *cuban seashells reminding me of summer *hot coffee burning my tongue *homemade blankets piled in closets *flip-flop weather *prospect of seeing my little sister again soon *regular paycheck *colleagues laughing in the office *learning to like my face without makeup and my hair with curls *actually enjoying humidity *purchasing the year's first bottle of sunscreen *knowing friday is here

a regular christmas elf

Last night I was getting the sleepy eyes from the puppy now known as "Trouble." It was raining outside on my still-torn-up patio and the time seemed just right to do a little work on a blanket I started specifically to keep my hands busy while watching crime shows on TV.

I forgot that the moment I pull out neato things like yarn and scissors, sleepy eyes wakes right the heck up. She could be in a deep sleep and the moment yarn comes out of the drawer she's on her feet.
I don't know what I'd do without her "help."

Good thing I probably won't have to worry about that anytime soon.

Let's just say, the blanket isn't finished yet.

"sleeping in"

Most mornings the alarm on my rinkey-dink phone goes off at about 0600, and is promptly changed to 0630 which hardly ever works the way I plan because somebody goes from being quietly asleep on the majority of whatever pillow I'm laying on to not only wide awake, but wide awake and ready to play!! (Or pee, as the case may be) Whatever the reason is, we're up and at 'em before the sun has completely made it into the sky and off on a walk before I've even had a chance for coffee.

For some reason, a few days ago the normal didn't happen and a fuzzy puppy and I slept until the sun hit our faces. Oh, it was nice. So nice. The kind of nice I hope happens again one day. Nice enough to be documented by attempting a portrait of a, by then, wiggly puppy in that sunshine I've been enjoying so much.

the place i live

As April speeds by, North Virginia is showing its true colors. Having moved here under a year ago, every season has shown me something new to like about this area so far. However, Spring has won, hand down, thus far. Spring here means all the nursery rhymes you ever heard; blooming trees, daffodils, tulips, mild days and nights, rain (lots of rain) and the most beautiful sunny days you've ever seen. It's been a long time since I've seen this kind of seasonal change and I am enjoying every minute of it.

friday cont.

Just another shot of some of the pretty flowers on our morning walk. Spring is here for sure and DC residents are enjoying it, despite the potential pending government shut-down. I'm personally interested to see what will happen if, well, it happens! It will be like one big vacation for the whole city! Happy Friday all!

tgif

My (kinda) boss, a rather stiff young professional with a weird accent from the UK, says to me this morning....

"It's Friday and today I'm gonna run like a business."

~Priceless~

self portrait

Since both of us had some work done lately, I thought it was high time for a self portrait. So here we are, cuddling on the couch. At least 50 takes into the photo process... poor Beulah looks like she's being held captive. (she kinda was at that point) Oh well! Good times!