Day 52

"Little Boys are God's Way of Telling You that Your House is Too Clean"

I am desperately trying to "spring clean" this week, but it's not going as planned. I did manage to get quite a bit done yesterday, but today is another story. For some reason, Jackson only goes outside to play if I'm out there. Once I'm out, he plays....but if I'm not....he is inside constantly asking me "if he can go outside and play!" Do you sense my wit's end?!?!

Anyhow, today I was in the middle of re-organizing their rooms when I finally thought "what the heck"....might as well go outside with Jack. Of course, I don't go anywhere without my camera so I captured some cute shots of Jack playing around. Because I actually hope to continue on with my Spring Cleaning I'm posting this as my Day 52 so I can mark one more thing off my to-do list for the day.

Here is Day 52.....

Vintage!

Here are a few images I took while on my Treasure Hunt with Jackson yesterday. I felt like a kid again exploring old yard sites and run-down old homes.

The Boys of Summer....

Well, no sooner did we take the hockey skates off, the baseball gloves came out! The boys have been spending every evening playing ball outside. We haven't been able to find the baseballs that we have (hmmmm, I know I put them somewhere?!?) so they've been making do with whatever ball they can find. Even Jackson is trying to play (much to the grumbling of his older brothers). Here are a few images I captured last evening.

Day 51

"Treasure Hunt"

I know, some of you are looking at this saying "why on earth did she take a picture of a bunch of junk?" However, one person's junk is another one's treasure. Today Jack and I went on a little "treasure hunt". We toured around my area and ventured in and around some old homes and properties (yes, I know the property owners - I was not trespassing!) I love looking at old, vintage yards and seeing what treasures remain. I even ran into Mr. Blight (my lovely neighbour) who filled me in on the history of some of these old properties. I think he thought I was crazy taking pictures of all that "junk"! It was interesting to hear who lived in these homes so long ago.

When I was a kid, I grew up on a farm and for fun, the neighbours and my siblings and I used to jump on our bikes and go "exploring". We'd be gone all day out in the country exploring old houses, schools and sheds. There were a couple old places that had cool old newspapers and magazines that we used to leaf through and be amazed at how "old" they were. In some there were books, dishes and clothes! We never did take any of it though. We left everything behind - now I wish in a way we had taken some of those "memories" with us....because I am almost postive they perished with the home.

So, for Day 51 here are a few images I captured on my Treasure Hunt. Jack wasn't overly impressed, but I brought along bribes to keep him happy.

PS - Notice the picture on the bottom, right hand corner - it says "Jo-Dee" under the horseshoe....I thought that was kinda cool! I've taken pictures at this location countless time and never noticed that!

Mother's Day Special in Grandview!

I have had a few requests to hold my Mother's Day Special in Grandview area as well. So, on May 8th, 2010 (day before Mother's Day) I am going to host the same special in the Grandview/Roblin area.

Details as follows:

*$50.00

*30 minute mini-session

*Portraits taken of Mothers with their children

*Includes my time taking & editing the prints

*Includes a CD with approximately 25 high resolution images on CD for you to own and print at your leisure.

*Free 5x7 print

**Location yet to be announced.

Email me at jodilee@memoriesbyme.ca if you're interested in participating in this special. Limited number of sessions available.

Thanks! JL

Day 50

Wow - 50 days of Project 365 and I have yet to miss one day! I can honestly tell you that there are days I have wondered "what in the world am I going to take a picture of today" and there are other days when I have a hard time choosing what I will post because I have so many options. Today was kind of one of those "what do I post today" days!

As you may know, I'm still waiting for the hubby to figure out our second vehicle. Like I said in an earlier post....he likes to research things to death. Today he took "my" car and left me with "his" Dodge so I pretty much came to the conclusion that I was going to stay home and avoid the banjos playing. I have a tonne of spring cleaning to do, a yard that needs cleaned up and a mountain of laundry to do, but instead I was craving chocolate so Jack and I baked! I chose to take a few pictures just in case nothing else sparked my interest for photo of the day and when I saw the results of these pics I figured I might as well use them.

So, here is Day 50! Jack and I procrastinating on spring cleaning and avoiding the Dodge by baking cookies!

Day 49

Well, I'm happy to report that the Easter Bunny found his way to our cabin this morning. It was a bit of a hectic morning with all three boys searching (fighting) for eggs. I'm not sure why they were racing around trying to beat one another as I made them put everything in the middle of the floor and divide it up evenly in the end. Always competing! We had our Easter Celebration on Saturday with my family so we had today to ourselves. We took a drive around Asessippi, packed up and headed to Brandon for our own little Easter celebration at our favourite restaurant - Montana's.

Whenever I drive from Brandon to Portage, I always notice this one lone tree along the #1. I always wonder why it was chosen to stand alone all these years. Obviously at one time, there were more than just this one tree, but somewhere along the line, they were taken out and this one tree remains. There is something symbolic about that lone, old tree. It reminds me of my Grandpa Maxwell. He buried his brother yesterday, it was his only sibling. He has lost his parents, two wives, many dear friends and his son..... and yesterday he lost his brother. He is turning 88 this month and I couldn't help but marvel at how well he does. He looked so handsome and distinguished at the funeral in his suit and he stood tall and proud and strong, just like this tree.

To some of you, you may think "it's just a tree along the side of a road, what so special about that?", but I hope some of you see the beauty of this tree as I did. Even though it's pretty boring & blah outside, this tree still looked beautiful to me.

Here is Day 49......I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend with your loved ones and friends.

Day 48

"Hockey Boys"

I apologize for being a day late posting my Day 48, but I didn't have access to my laptop yesterday.

Spent the afternoon at my Great Uncle Bernie's funeral and saw a lot of family I hadn't seen in awhile. I left the boys at my parent's with the hubby while I went. When I left they were playing hockey on the grass.....and when we got home three hours later.....they were still playing. The boys continued to play until dark, only taking a break to come in and enjoy the awesome Easter Meal that Grandma made! Here are a few pictures of the boys enjoying the beautiful day!

Here is Day 48.....

Day 47

"Mr. Maddox"

Today was not an easy day for my home-town of Grandview. I attended the funeral of a young boy who was the type of kid you hope your own children will grow up to be. His life was cut short far too soon....it was a very, very sad day. It's days like today where you stop and realize what is REALLY important in life.

I wasn't up for taking many pictures today, but I did have my sister's family & my parents over for supper afterwards and I couldn't resist following my little nephew Maddox around and taking a few pictures of him. He just turned one in February and he is such a card. He does not walk - he struts - and he has everyone eating out of the palm of his hand. Hey - there has to be some perk to being born the seventh grandson in the Maxwell Family!

Here are just a few sweet pics of Mr. Maddox.

Day 47......

Day 46

"Prairie Sky"

What a busy day! I had intended to get organized early in the day and be ready when the boys got home from school to head to our cabin. However, as I was packing I suddently realized that I forgot to finish my nephew's birthday video...and all the pictures I would need were on my external hard drive (which I didn't want to bring with me to the cabin). Every year I make all my nephews and my own boys a "year through my lens" DVD slideshow set to music with pictures that I've taken of them. I knew I had to finish it before we left so everything else got put on hold, including packing!

Needless to say I did not have a minute to take a pictures for my 365 Project so as we were driving from Neepawa to Minnedosa I couldn't help but notice the beauty of the sky as the sun was setting. Perfect....but the family was not in favour of another pit-stop for Mom to take pictures (yet again). So, I just snapped away as we drove and was pretty happy to see I captured a few pictures that I really liked.

So, here is Day 46....the skies near Minnedosa.

*I couldn't help but think of a young boy by the name of Brock Pulock as I looked up into that beautiful sky. R.I.P. Brock.