Straight from the Runways of Milan

The sporty look is in this season!


Our lovely model, Autumn, displays the quirky headware of Spring 2008. This neon colored raquetball inspired headgear is fun, energetic, and appropriate for every occasion, from casual days at the office to Animal House-esque frat parties.

Pick up yours today, before they are gone and you are the only one in town not sporting this chic trend.

Draggin'

<-pic of Autumn playing outside









Autumn: (playing with toy dragon) "Mommy, this is a DRAGON. It DRAGS us. He's very mean."

I guess 3 years old is the age to take things literally.

The 5 Ws-part 1 of 6

Pic of my morning coffee and journal. Um, is it bad that i'm 30 and I have a Jack Sparrow journal? Haha.








When I was a kid I took a journalism class. (Yeah, I know, i've taken classes on just about everything it seems. I'm sorry, I have a short attention span-I like something for one class and the next semester it's a completely different major I want to study. Haha.) Anyways, in this journalism class, we got to do a big project at the end of the year-ours was the school yearbook. That project was seriously a lot of fun. In the beginning of the year though, we just learned the basics of writing an article, etc. You know, those basics that start in school as soon as one can write: The Who, What, Where, and Why of every good article.

I'm taking that theme and running with it. I figure, if I am going to write a blog on a daily basis, people should get to know a little more about the person BEHIND the blog. I'm not a writer, and I don't get paid to blog. I'm a real person and I live a real life. Hopefully by having this tiny spot in the universe I can convey a bit of my life, my SELF, to the outside world. After all, everyone wants their 15 minutes right? It seems the voyeur in all of us loves to hear about other peoples lives, their celebrations, their trials and tribulations. This is one of the things that makes blogging so popular-it's sort of the 'standing around chatting over the back fence with neighbors' of the internet, amirite? Maybe, just maybe, somebody out there will be interested in what I have to say.

With that I am going to embark (yes, I said embark-that word is so cool-it reminds me of a National Geographic show where they are "EMBARKING on a trip to the wilds of Tanzania!" or something. It just OOZES adventure! /end digression) on a series of posts about (who else?) myself. In this life I live, I am often not identified as actually ME. I have several children, and I am always "Gwen's mom", "Christian's mom", that lady with a bunch of kids, etc. Don't get me wrong, I love being those things. They shape my life and bring me joy in ways I can't even begin to express. They are a PART of who I am, of course. When I write, often times it is all about the kids. That is fine as well, I love my children and they are a HUGE part of my life. I hardly ever write solely about me. My challenge, then, to myself, is to write a series of posts entitled 'who, what, where, when, and why'. These posts will be about me, my life, my outlook on life, and generally whatever else I feel like throwing in there. (To my few subscribers, you are at my mercy! Bwahahahahaha!) Each 'W' will have a separate post, and all will be under the tag Who What Where When Why. Maybe by the time this series of posts is over, you will have gotten to know me a bit better.

This, then, is my introductory post for this project, which will be under the same tag as the rest. I guess that would make it post #1 in a 6 part series.

Be on the lookout! The 5 w's are coming soon to a feed reader near you! Until tomorrow, I hope you are having a lovely Labor Day weekend,
Car

Outside my Window

The first thing I do every morning is walk around the house and open the blinds in every room. If it's not too hot or cold, I open all of the windows and the front and back door as well to get some fresh morning air in the house. This lets all kinds of wonderful sunlight in, and hopefully saves me on electricity as I turn off nightlights that were left on overnight, as well as just making me feel happy and refreshed and ready to start my day.

My walk around the house ends in the kitchen, where I stop to make my coffee. While my coffee is brewing I always open my kitchen window and look out. Right outside my window there is a light golden brown bamboo mesh fence extension that sticks out about 3 feet or so above my plain brown wooden fence. It is a roll of bamboo, tied together so that the bamboo sticks are parallel to each other. It is not a very tightly assembled roll, and there are small spaces between the bamboo sticks. I like it because I think it looks somewhat tropical.

The big thing I love about it though, is that a morning glory vine has woven itself around and through the fence. The vines just happened to grow into two U type shapes, which makes them look almost like those fake flower swags one would hang inside their homes. These are not fake looking though. They are periwinkle colored morning glories with bright purplish pink lines radiating out from the centers like stars, on vivid green vines with thick, healthy leaves unmarred by backyard pests. In the early morning, while the sun is still not far above the horizon, sunlight filters in the most amazing way through the spaces in the bamboo fence, illuminating the fence as well as the morning glories from behind. They almost look as if they are lit up from within. I love looking at it every morning, it's such a nice way to start my day.

I took a picture of just a small section of the fence the other morning, and it just doesn't do it justice.

Labor Day Weekend

Summer is drawing to a close, and I hope you had as much fun as we did this year!

I know this is a brand new blog, but I will be taking today, Sunday, and Monday off so no Gem of the Day for the next three days. I may blog about life in general though this weekend. We had our first week of school this week and i'd like to take these three days to relax with my little ones and get some housecleaning/organizing done to prepare us for the next week of school. Things get very hectic around here during school time! :)

I hope you have a lovely holiday weekend and please remember to drive safely. Make the most of it, you know Labor Day is kind of the Last Hurrah of summer!

The Blessing Flower

Jenna came in this morning from the patio with a beautiful
purplish blue morning glory in full bloom.


She looked at me, all rosy cheeked and smiling. "I love
this flower mommy! It blesses me. Everyone should love
flowers and then everyone will be blessed."

Blesses her? I thought. I was wondering where she might
have heard about being blessed?

"Blesses you!" I said "What a beautiful thing to say!"
Jenna gave me a huge smile and shoved the flower
blissfully to her nose.

Achooo! She sneezed loudly.

"Bless me!" She yelled.

"See mommy, I told you this flower blesses me. It ALWAYS
blesses me each time I smell it. I love this flower."

With that she skipped happily away.