Downtown Des Moines

The Polk County Courthouse:

Bird Brain

Look who's stuck inside? Poor li'l thing.

Rural Iowa Road on "Rural Thursday"

I think I'll play along with the "Rural Thursday" theme today (considering I am in Iowa, right?!)!

Rural road near Boone, IA

I used PicMonkey to edit this photo I took last spring.

"Rural Thursday" is a weekly blog hop co-hosted by A Rural Journal and Two Bears Farm. Please check out their blogs to see other rural-themed entries.

Same View, Different Days

I was just looking at some of the photos I had on Kodak Gallery (because I'd sadly found out they'd be shutting down in a couple months).

Of course, I found a few more photos from when we lived in New Mexico (in my favorite house), and wanted to share the (most beautiful backyard) view of the Sacramento Mountains (in Alamogordo, NM) that I'd had on two separate days. (At least, I'm pretty sure, without going and checking, that I haven't shared these two particular ones, yet.)

This is the "regular" view from our back yard.

And here's the "foggy" view from our back yard.

Can you believe the difference?!

In the top photo, clouds would roll in, and perhaps a thunderstorm would hover near the mountains (not always making it to our house), then dissipate, leaving crisp, clear blue skies.

In the bottom photo (late summer), clouds had moved in, and we'd actually gotten much needed rain in our neighborhood. After the rain stopped (but while everything was still wet), some clouds had settled into this "valley" area behind our back yard just west of the mountain range. I'd gotten a photo before the arid landscape sucked up the remaining moisture and the clouds disappeared.

Special Artwork

On Friday, Livie came home from school with some special artwork. She'd made me a Mother's Day card, with some special things she'd written about me.

Here's the front and back of the card. (If you click on the middle of the photo to enlarge it, you can see where it would be folded in half, with the right side being the front, and the left side being the back):

Mother's Day card, 2012, front and back.

The "front" of the card depicts Livie (in the middle), me on the right (she even included my glasses!!) and Andrew on the left (in his standard "military" haircut).

The back has "I Love Mom" and a rainbow. 

And here's the inside (again, if you click on the photo, you'll get a better view of it):

Mother's Day card, 2012, inside.

Here's the "translation" . . .

My Mom

By Olivia

My mom is spectacular!

She likes to speak Spanish

She makes yummy Christmas cookies

She always loves me

The best thing about my mom is she goes on adventures with me

I had to have her read the card to me so I could make sure I was reading her writing correctly! (She's in Kindergarten, so her handwriting skills can only get better!)

I got a kick out of the fact that she put that I like to speak Spanish! Even though I majored in Spanish while getting my undergraduate degree (actually I double-majored in Spanish and Philosophy), I rarely speak Spanish at home. So that's why I thought it was funny that she says I like to speak Spanish! I'm thinking that she heard me speaking Spanish with my grandmother the last time we visited her at my parents' house. (My grandmother is bilingual.)

Coffee Coffee Coffee!!

Here's the way to start an important day - Mother's Day:

Coffee in the Area 51 mug! (Daddy, not Livie, made it!)

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

(If you're interested, click here for my 2011 Mother's Day tribute. And click here for the 2010 tribute.)

Your Sunday Best (5/12/12)

A swim lesson's tools of the trade, 12 May 2012, local YMCA.

Taken with an iPhone camera, I used PicMonkey to edit the photo (I used "Posterize").

Taking part in this week's "Your Sunday Best," hosted by A Rural Journal. Please click on the button below to view the rest of this week's photographic entries:

Campus Instagram Views

Yesterday, I had to go to the University of Iowa campus to drop off a final paper, return a few library books, and sell back some textbooks. While out and about in Iowa City, I "snapped" a few Instagram photos on my mobile phone. Check them out:

Old Capitol, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

MacBride Hall, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

"!" windows, Gilmore Hall, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

Your Sunday Best (5/5/12)

"The Boys of Summer (and Mid-Spring)"

This week's "Your Sunday Best" photo is of Cedar Rapids Kernels baseball, during the break in the middle of their double-header games on Friday May 4th, taken with the Instagram app on my iPhone.

"Your Sunday Best" is hosted by A Rural Journal. Please click on the button below to view the rest of this week's entries.