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Left to Right: Caroline Neubauer, Libby Neubauer, Elise, Cason Eslick, Cooper Eslick

SHHHH! Don’t tell my big kids, but we had friends over while they were at school! We all had a good time (especially the moms!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, I can’t help but add commentary on this one. My tulips have popped through the ground. You have no idea how much this fills me and makes me smile! Be forewarned…there will be many more pics of these as they bloom. I love tulips.

 

 

 

More commentary, UGH, I know that’s what you are thinking. Just in case you didn’t know, my mom has opposition in the election this year. Well, sorta has opposition. That’s a long story. Anyway, I designed and set up a website for her. In your free time (yes, I know what a joke that is…remember, I have kids too) go to www.BrendaHyden.com. I took this picture at the Campaign Kick Off in Franklin this week. (Notice the tulip! I warned you. They make me smile.)

 

To give credit where it is due, Heath took this picture and the picture of the bird in day 33/62. He is beginning to see why the camera is always in my hand. He realizes it is fun! (Which kind of scares me…we only have one camera!)

This is for my long time friends, Ashley King and Amanda Tipps.

Ok girls, my mind failed me this year! I just wrote today’s date and realized I missed March 7th yesterday. Blame it on insanity. I will fully claim it! So, since I am a day late, there won't be flowers this year. Just a note of appreciation for all to see.

To all of those who are wondering what in the world I am talking about, here is the back story:

Amanda and I met when Heath became the Athletic Trainer at Huntland in 1996. We were both at the athletic events of the school, so we were together a lot. This led to a wonderful friendship. And even though it was a mix up and not intended, we also share the same wedding day. Once Tommy was born, we asked Amanda and Tipps to be Tommy’s godparents, which they gladly accepted.

I met Ashley when she started teaching at South Jr High in the fall of 2001. She and her husband, Phillip had just started working for the Franklin County School System. They had their son, Grant, who is 3 months younger than Tommy. With both of us having boys who were so close in age and teaching together daily, we became friends. We shared interests in books, crossword puzzles, card games and cooking, which gave us something other than the boys in common. Through the years, our friendship has continued, as has Tommy and Grant’s. They enjoy each other as Ashley and I do. They can honestly say they have been lifetime friends!

That being said, 8 years ago yesterday, on a warm sunny almost spring day, 1 year old Tommy, 10 month old Grant, Ashley, Amanda and I were playing in our yard on North High. Ashley and Grant left to go to Wal Mart. On their way home, they stopped back by. Ashley gave Amanda and I a bouquet of tulips. She said the tulips were so pretty, so she bought us all some to enjoy because sometimes friends deserve a “happy” and to be appreciated.

We proclaimed “Happy March 7^th” to be a yearly event, to express our appreciation of our friendship. From year to year, usually at least one of us remembers to send flowers to each other. Well, this year I completely forgot. And this is very sad, because what would we do without friends!

Our lives have grown busy with more than just Tommy and Grant. Ashley has another son, Jackson and Amanda has 2 precious girls, Megan and Molly, and I, of course, have added 2 girls to the mix, Caroline and Elise. With the kids and life keeping us busy we only see each other on occasion (which is usually at a ball field of some type.) We love to get together for dinner and a good game of cards, Mexican train dominoes or Aggravation, but it doesn’t happen as often as we would like. The wonderful thing about friendships is, we can go months without seeing each other, then when we do get together we pick up where we left off. Aren’t friends wonderful.

Girls, thanks for your friendship. It is fabulous and it is appreciated. I know that if I ever need anything, I can count on you both. I am so sorry I missed yesterday, but know that even if I have a momentary slip and forget a very important day, your friendship is invaluable. Above all else, HAPPY MARCH 7^th! (a day late!)

Love you both.

On the digital photography school website, they give a challenge every week. This week’s challenge was JUMP!. The goal was to get a picture of someone with their feet off the ground. I had pondered how I would do this, then the opportunity presented itself.

Heather and I went Saturday morning to get sunrise pictures. We quickly discovered we were not in a good spot to see the sunrise. We decided to go to the Natural Bridge in Sewanee and scope out the sunrise there. The sun had already rose but the sky was bright blue, without a cloud one. We took advantage of the bright sun to get our JUMP picture. Not to mention we had a great time doing it!

After seeing the pictures when we got home, Heath decided it was obvious Heather and I were not cheerleaders. We had a hard time synchronizing our jumps.

(To give credit where it is due, the last 3 pictures were taken by Heather.)

Here are the sunrise pictures we took before we went to the Natural Bridge.

Well, I think photography has officially all but taken over my life. It’s official. I have been obsessed lately. That was my first clue. The last two mornings Heather and I have been up at 4:45am to get to Sewanee to see the sunrise. That was my second clue. My third and final clue was all day long I have wanted to stop everything and get to the computer to go through this mornings pictures. The best news is that I am pleased with the pictures. The colors were AMAZING! See for yourself.

As we watched the sun slowly creep above the mountain on the horizon, it was breathtaking.

This was therapy like none other. Reinforces the fact that we are in a wonderful place and miracles happen daily, with something as routine as the sunrise.

These in the next series, with the exception of the first, were taken by Heather. She is my partner in crime in early morning photography escapes (and most other photography escapes, too!).

Tommy loves the Science Fair. He loves projects and science experiments.

After seeing the difference in the yolks of our chickens eggs and a store bought eggs, the question he came up with was, “Which egg has the largest yolk?” We used 5 different eggs:

From left to right:

Brown egg from our chickens

White egg from our chickens

Commercial white egg

Store bought Organic brown egg

Store bought Cage Free brown egg

 

 

We measured each egg, then broke each and separated the yolk from the white.

Tommy’s hypothesis was the the brown egg from our chickens (on the right) would have the largest yolk.

Well, he was right…sort of…that egg actually had 2 yolks. Yes, 2 yolks. That is how it goes at our house. Set the whole experiment up, to find our results inconclusive. But, this added to Tommy’s excitement. When we cracked it and saw 2 yolks, he erupted in excitement! Now, the excitement was probably because his hypothesis was right. But he was so very excited!

 

 

 

He then cut, glued, cut then glued some more to get his board put together.

 

 

 

End Result:

And a proud, happy little man! (Not to mention the proud, happy Momma!)