Barefeet in High Heels

For those who love the blogosphere, most of you already know Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman.  Her blog has won bloggies for the past few years, including Blog of the Year.  She's basically fabulous, and has a LOT of people following her.

One of the main reasons, I got started on her blog was her photography tutorials. 

That, and the fact that she would record her burps.

Fabulous.

Anyway, back to the point.

Recently she's been having photography contests on her site.  Basically, you upload photos to her Flickr group based on the theme contest that she's having that week. Usually, any given contest there has thousands of entries, and about 50 - 75 chosen as group finalists.  The groups are then narrowed down to one group of finalists, and a winner is chosen.

This week the theme is Americana, and as always, I entered a photo.

But this time...well, this time...I'M A GROUP FINALIST!!  Woohoo.

Saw the post this morning and just about peed my pants.

Check out her blog and see the AMAZING photography submitted by her readers.  It's just awesome, and very awe inspiring. I feel very fortunate and blessed to be a part of it!

Oh...and gotta love that the one person in my life who probably has no clue what a blog is, is featured on one of the best out there...Congrats Dad!

Please visit this link and watch the video.

You'll learn a lot about Engineering Man.

Classic.

Favorite line...

"Will he be OK?"

"No. He'll be an engineer."

Engineering Man and I took Mini #1 to the parentals this weekend so he could combine with my dad.

Being out in the field reminded me of summer and me being the one in Mini #1's seat.

And reminded me how HOT it was.

And dry.

And dusty.

And did I say HOT?

But the views were gorgeous.

And sometimes my camera wouldn't snap pictures fast enough.

The best part?

It felt like home.

This weekend included food...

...gorgeous sunsets...

...working the new camera...

...a hot dog...

...an early 4th celebration...

...that included awesome fireworks...

(stay tuned this week)

...helping papa...

(click the photo above to see Mini #1's face in the combine...priceless)

...to combine...

...chewing on fingers...

...watering flowers...

...sprinklers...

...horse swings...

...booze...

...more food...

...tents...

...playing with Great Grandma...

...sleepy (and sick) daddy...

...and a sleepy boy that took a 4 hour nap Sunday...

...sick bugs that is.

Engineering Man's been diagnosed with strep.  

Awesome.

And I haven't been sleeping because Mini #2 hasn't been sleeping.

Awesome.

So, to combat the inevitable, I've been popping one to two of those daily.

These things are great.  Start to feel a little tickle, or even the beginning of a cold, and it's like a shot of bug killer.  Crossing my fingers, but so far so good on not getting strep!

...because I'm feeling nastalgic.

Anybody want to guess which picture is Mini #1 and which picture is Mini #2?

Yes...this is not the same child.

My softball team is serious about softball.

Usually.

And then, there's what happens between the games.

These showed up Saturday during our tournament...

...at first they just laid there...

...then one person picked one up to fill it with beer...

...and another picked them up to make sure they all "worked"...

...and everyone started to get in on the fun...

...suddenly, someone had the brilliant idea to hop in a truck...

...flash the "Killer Penguin" sign...

...and do a drive by water gunning...

...to the team we'd just lost to...

...seriously know how to have some fun...

Since I was young...yea, really young...I've played softball.

Heck, even on Father's Day I called my Dad to discuss my weekly adventures on the field. 

Now that I've got my camera, I'm using my new outlet, photography, to document my old.

Here's the latest...

GUESS WHO GOT HER NEW CAMERA!!!

Be expecting a lot more random pictures.

And here goes...

...fairly certain my neighbors think I'm nuts considering I took Owen outside at dusk for a few pictures...

...lovethis...

...Mini #1 and #2 have this same face...

...oh sky, how I've missed you...

...what big eyes you have...

...mmm...cupcakes...

...someday he'll learn...

...they never had these kazoos when I was growing up...

...a 4-month picture...

...daddy finally coming home...

...and LOTS of time spent in cleats...

Stay tuned tomorrow for details...