the post in which i turn random photos into "something"

i've essentially loaded up the pictures from the past few days, taken on both cameras (big and small), and said, "hmm, there's got to be a blog post in this somewhere."

so bear with me.

friday evening, i got to see some old friends and former students by taking posed pictures at the prom for the school where i used to work. it was held at the clubhouse for a local country club, and they did a great job of setting the mood with a little candlelight and simple--yet classic--decorations.
i could not believe how much the students had grown up! when you see them day in and day out, they age slowly and it's hard to recognize how much they mature in a year's time. however, if it's been a year since you've seen them, it becomes dramatically obvious how much they've grown up and become beautiful (and handsome) young men and women.
on saturday, we had a busy morning of cleaning and doing yardwork. as justin worked outside, mowing the lawn and trimming, i worked inside, vacuuming and sweeping and swiffer-ing and wiping down the counters, windows and cabinets. it felt good to finally have the house in some sort of order. we've been on the go for the last several weekends, and our house had been severely neglected. i finally feel caught up and ready to go for these last few weekends before summer begins.

we spent the afternoon and evening celebrating mother's day with our respective families. first with justin's mom, where he showed off his completed project of getting all their old family photos scanned and in digital format. she can now send pictures through e-mail, print copies of old photos or just enjoy looking through them on the computer. maybe we'll share of few of his old photos in some upcoming "remember when"s.

then it was off to clayton to visit with my family at alan and rachel's place. we were running a little behind schedule as it was, and then the gps system wasn't updated to include the new 70 bypass. so as the screen shows us driving through corn fields on the gps, we were actually driving PAST clayton on the new bypass. eventually, we did get there and were able to spend a great evening with my mom, grandma, aunts and cousins. we also got to meet alan and rachel's new kitten, bella rose. she was adorable, and just the size that milo was when we first got him. it's hard to believe that he was EVER that small.


let me also take a moment to plug my sister-in-law's new jewelry venture on etsy.com. she has done a great job of designing her own jewelry and creating a shop on etsy to sell it. she has some cute stuff, so please check it out. i was browsing through some of her pieces while i was there, and it is soooo adorable.


now, a few pictures about pepper dog.

she's been a real sweetheart lately. we've had plenty of snuggle time on the couch in the evenings.

and can i share one of my favorite characteristics about her? i love her eyelashes. yes, she has the most precious little brown eyelashes that stand out, even with all of her wiry fur and scruffy man-beard. (that's what we call the accumulation of fur under her chin that give her the terrier/schnauzer look.)she's been experimenting with sleeping locations lately, including her bed, in the kennel and... on top of the kennel? we call this penthouse view.

and her favorite spot lately has been a huge field behind the community college, where we let her run off some steam. we have a 50 foot nylon rope that she drags along, so we can catch her if absolutely necessary. we're doing a lot of practice with her on "re-calls" where we call her back to us from far out. she's doing better, but still not quite enough to let her completely off leash. she is so easily distracted by the stray bird or car or person or bug or just about anything that will lead her off course. finally, a few pictures from our new series at TNT (our youth group meeting every week.) it's "tuesday night talk show" and the guys did an awesome job with set!
i was especially a fan of the disco ball this evening.

i thought this would be a funny picture, so we staged it ( i promise!) there was one last piece of cake, and rather than putting it on a plate or napkin, lindsey handed it to me on the almost-empty platter. and then silas had to get in on the action with some frosting!
so was that a post? i feel like it was way too long and all over the place. but i guess i've already written it, so might as well post it.

what random events occurred in your life this week?