PhotoHunt - Hands

While at the Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield MO, over Spring Break I took a picture of the hand of one of the monkeys hanging from a rope. If you would like to see more "hand" pictures go on over to the home of the Photo Hunt.

Upcoming...

Upcoming this weekend....Spring Break happenings and pictures along with an announcement! Stay tuned! You don't want to miss it.

Storm Clouds

UPDATED: I'm joining Trish over at Crazy Working Mom with her "Looking at the Sky on Friday" meme. I am however just using what I posted yesterday (below) for this weeks photo. Enjoy

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Building A Plane With Papa

During our time with my parents Sam was excited to learn that he was going to build a rubber band powered plane with Papa (my dad). Even though it will take more than just this one trip up there to complete it he still had a great time working on it. He can't wait to go back up to work on it some more! Here are a few pictures of them working on it together. You'll have to turn off my music to the left first.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

PhotoHunt

It's been about 8 months since I've participated in PhotoHunt but now I'm back! Today's theme is 'Yellow'. Can't wait to see what everyone else has done. If you'd like to see other participants just follow this: PhotoHunt

Spring Break....So Far...

Once we got out of the DFW (forgot two things and had our low tire light come on) area last Monday our trip was quite uneventful. Sam played his game boy, took a small break to read one of his books out loud to me, and then played his game boy some more. Made it to Springfield by 2:30 in the afternoon and have a good time ever since! I've visited with some friends and have had time to work on my socks (pictures coming soon), I've read some, knitted some, and have watched Sam play. It's been fairly relaxing.

Until...Remember that the the low tire light came on? I checked my tires on the road once the light came on and all the tires had the same pressure. Of course, the tires were hot and I knew it wasn't an accurate reading but since they all were the same and none of them looked the slightest bit low I went on. On Tuesday when I was getting ready to go and visit with a friend I remembered that I needed to recheck my tires. While checking the pressures I noticed oil spots all over the back of the van and there was a foil wrapped hose hanging down underneath the front of the engine. My dad and I looked at it and we think we put it back on in the correct spot. I drove it yesterday and didn't notice a sound, smell or feeling wrong with how it drove. When I turned on the A/C I noticed that it wasn't blowing cold air at all. So just to be sure my van is now at the mechanics this morning getting checked out. I DON'T NEED THIS NOW! I didn't sleep that well last night at all due to my worrying. I'm now sitting around waiting for them to call me. I don't wait well on the inside. On the outside I'm nice and calm.

Tonight I have dinner with the in-laws and we're looking forward to our visit with them. Tomorrow it's the zoo and then my niece's choir performance. Friday we'll head go to Silver Dollar City for the day and we'll travel back home on Saturday. Don't know yet when we'll leave but I know that we won't be in a hurry.

On a completely different subject...I just found out that Write From Karen has posted the dates and theme to her next photo contest. Guess what I'm going to be taking pictures of the rest of this week and till April 11th...you guessed it...entries for her photo contest. As some of you may or may not remember I won her contest last July. Since I hadn't blogged much since then I didn't get a chance to enter her past contests. So I'm back and ready!

First Lace Project

I've been meaning to share with everyone what I've been knitting lately. I've finally started a project that my sister-in-law suggested I try. It's a lace shawl that you can find here. I'm using Peach Pingouin “Andes” yarn which is composed of 40% wool, 30% alpaca, and 30% acrylic. The pictures don't show the color exactly but you'll get the idea. I'm really enjoying knitting this one. Except for when I sit down to watch an engaging show and then I find myself making a mistake. Unfortunately I don't notice the mistake until I'm about one to two rows away from it. So I have to backtrack and fix my mistake. But other than that I'm having fun with this one. I'd like to have it done by Easter but I'm not sure if I'll make it or not. I'm taking it with me to Springfield this next week. I'm taking Sam there for Spring Break. We're not going to do much which is just fine with me. Sam's bringing toys, I'm taking some projects and we're both bringing some books.

Forgot to add the fingerless gloves that I made. I found a decent and easy pattern for my first pair but I re-wrote it as I still didn't like it. I will make another pair as I need to re-do the thumb hole. Here's a picture of them!

Birthday Party

Sam has been 9 years old for a week now and I'm still wondering where those years have gone. He is such an amazing boy. Here are some photos of his birthday. Some are from here at home and then the others are from his birthday party at the park. He had 8 friends show up and they all had so much fun. They played with water guns, got tattoos, had cake, opened up presents and then went to play some more in the park and in the sand. There is so much happiness in his face. His smile is the best! We had great weather for the party too. Temperatures were in the upper 70s/lower 80s and it was overcast so it didn't feel that hot. Although I could have done without the 25+ mph wind. Couldn't have candles on his cake. But it didn't seem to phase him much.

(Before hitting play be sure to stop my music on this page.)

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

9 Already????

Tomorrow is Sam's 9th birthday. Where has the time gone? It seems like only yesterday we were meeting him at his foster parents house. He was 3 months old and was the most beautiful baby boy I had ever met. I never knew I could love some another persons child as my own. But now I know that love knows no boundaries. He is my son through and through.

I've sent out an email to those that were invited to Sam's birthday party. This time I had a great excuse to do so. Some had called to RSVP but the messages were accidentally erased. So, gee, I had to email and tell them that I wasn't sure who had and hadn't RSVP'd. I know that 3 for sure are going to be there and 1 maybe so far. I sure do hope and pray that more will be able to come. I so want Sam to have a great party. He's kind of bummed that one of his friends can't come. Mainly because it's a true friend of his. He is probably Sam's one constant friend even though they really only see each other at church. I haven't had the heart to tell him that he's moving away from here. Of course I'm still dealing with my own feelings on that subject. But that's not what this post is all about.

I'm going shopping for present tomorrow along with getting some items for his party. One thing that I can't forget to get is a battery for my camera. I would hate to have one of his birthdays go by without having pictures.

I'm hoping that I will get pictures up this weekend not only of the party but some others as well that I have been wanting to put up on her.

Here's hoping that we have a great birthday weekend!

I'm Back!

When one takes a break from writing on their blog it is really hard to get back into the habit of writing on it again. The last time I wrote on here was last August! It's been 7 long months and I think it's about time I get back into this. But how? There is so much to catch every one up on. How do I choose what to tell you about and what to leave out?

Guess the choice is simple. Just start from now. As I am constantly telling my son, Sam, the past is past and we can't get it back, we can't change it, so we need to just leave it be. Guess my own medicine is a good one.

The most talked about upcoming event in our house is Sam's birthday. He's turning 9 on Friday. I can't believe it! He'll have his party on Saturday at a local park and he's really excited about it. I just wish I knew how many kids were coming. No one seems to RSVP any more. Would it be wrong of me to email all the parents (as he invited his den in cub scouts and his basketball team along with a few extras) and just do a simple "birthday invite" via email as a gentle reminder? I still have a few days to ponder that.

Now on to the main project of this week. What activities should I have at an outdoor birthday party with 8 to 9 year old boys? Any advice?

PhotoHunter - Dark

To see more Photo Hunters click the button above.

This weeks theme for Photo Hunter is "Dark". We took Sam yesterday to see Wall-E. This is inside the theatre right before the movie started. Even though I took a picture of a light fixture you can see darkness all around.

8*8*08

It's finally here! This date won't happen again for another 100 years! And unless you have been living in a cave under a rock somewhere you know that today is the start of the Olympics. I love watching the Olympics (always have and always will) and can't wait for it to start this evening. I'll probably record most of it so that I can fast forward through commercials and other parts that I just don't want/care to watch.

Sam is also excited to watch as he is participating in several sports that are in these Olympic games.
He will watch:
Athletics
Cycling Track
Football
Swimming
These are his top 4 but I'm sure there will be more.

I love all the sports and will watch a lot of them. My question to you is...what is your favorite sport to watch during the Olympics. Please vote in my poll! It is located on the left hand column. You can even take this poll and put it on your site! Just click "get this poll" towards the bottom of the poll and it will pop up a code for you. How cool! I look forward to seeing what everyone likes.

You need to check out these photos! Especially number 22 & 31! Amazing!

Rachel's Birthday

I'm a little early but I wanted to wish a friend of mine and fellow blogger HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday Rachel!

Friday's 40 Photo Challenge Is Back!

Okay...Pensieve has the Friday 40 PC back up and running again. (Okay, I took a few weeks off from it too.) To start us all back up she has posted a creepy photo. Most of you know that I'm not that fond of spiders and pretty much try to stay away from them at all times. When I saw this photo that she took of a Daddy Long Leg I thought first of all the camping trips we used to take when I was growing up and finding Daddy Long Leg spiders all over the place. My second thought was of the movie Daddy Long Legs featuring Fred Astaire and then my third thought was how in the world am I going to come up with a poem about spiders. Much less write something, anything, about spiders! So...here it is:

Spider, spider, whatcha doin'?
Are you lookin' for some lunch?


Eight legs and creepy lookin'.
Bet you can catch a bunch.


But wait...you only have seven!
Hope someone else didn't go crunch.

I Actually Won!

First I want to thank everyone that voted for my picture! You are the ones that made my winning possible.

I WON! I WON! I WON! Woo Hoo! I entered my first photo contest a few days ago and I have now won my first photo contest.

The prize was a $25 gift certificate of my choice. I have chosen to receive a gift certificate from Target.

Also in celebration of winning I decided to give my blog a makeover. I think I'll stick with it for now. I like the look much better than the old one.

Vote For Me!

This note will stay at the top until voting is done. Please see below for more current entries.

It's that time! Please vote for my photo in the Photo Contest being hosted at Write From Karen! Before you go and vote you need to know that there is more than one Kim participating in this contest so please be sure that you vote on the one that says: Kim of The Misplaced Midwesterner. I will appreciate any and all votes that come my way! THANK YOU! To see more about this photo contest and another one that I have entered you can read my entry below or click here. Remember you can click on the photo to see it full size.

Last Week

For some reason last week was a long week and yet we really didn't do that much. Maybe it's because we were so go, go, go in the previous weeks that once we stopped it felt as though time stopped to.

We (Rachel, her kids and Sam and I) did get to the Fort Worth Water Gardens and part of the Historic Stockyards. We were going to do the Cattlepen Maze but when we got there neither Rachel or I had any cash and that's all they took. We went to an ATM across the street but it wasn't working. So we have postponed it for another day. We did get to see the Longhorns and I must say they are amazing animals. I've always wondered it they get headaches with those horns. Probably not, but it still makes me go...hmmmm. While there we had a great lunch at Riscky's BBQ. YUMMY! I'll go there again for sure. It was a hot (okay very hot) day but it was a lot of fun.

Rachel also gave me a CD full of pictures that she took of the final show of Music Man. Along with my few pictures and hers I'll share a few of them with you. Thank you Rachel for taking them!

Oh, another big thanks goes out to Rachel for promoting me and the photo contest on her blog! YEAH & THANK YOU!

Which reminds me...I've had an amazing jump in readership the past few days...now I just need all of you to vote for me. See the post at the top of the page.

Now for the pictures:

Music Man Photos:

Music Man Final Performance

Click on the photo to view more pictures.

Some of the pictures might be a bit blurry but I kept them in so it would give you more of an idea of the musical. Thanks again to Rachel for taking them for me.

Fort Worth Water Gardens and Stockyards:

Fort Worth Water Gardens and Longhorn Heard Click on photo to see more.

Photo Contests!

Angela over at Mommy Bytes mentioned not one but two different summer photo contests that I'm now entering! Thanks Angela! The photo that I'm entering is one of my son that I've had on here before of my son coming out of the pool. I just love how it captures the bliss and joy of being a kid during summer. He was trying to surprise me (which didn't work) but I think that I ended up surprising myself at the photo that I got.

The two contest can be found here at 5 Minute Moms and here at Write From Karen. If you would like to enter go on over!

Now my photo entry:

If you would like to see this photo bigger please go to this post and click on the picture there. For some reason I can't get blogger to work right on this one.

PhotoHunter - Clouds

Click above to visit more hunters.

This weeks theme is "Clouds". Here is a picture that I took while sitting on our back patio while Sam was swimming in the pool. It was such a beautiful day.

I'm Melting!

It's not only hot but it's hotter than hot right now with not much relief in sight. According to the local news last night we have had 11 out of the last 12 days above 100! The next few days will be record setting. If you click on the picture you will see that by Monday we will have a high temperature of 106 degrees Fahrenheit! That's not even what the feels like is. Right now it's 98 degrees with a feels like of 104 degrees so you can only imagine what we will be feeling like on Monday. I think that we may be melting.