Daily Photos: Mass Update...April & May

Okay, I've fallen behind, no, make that WAY behind on the Daily Photo challenge.  So, I am putting my best effort into a mass update, to (somewhat) bring them up to date.  I'm not including individually dated photos since there are so many...but they are in a *somewhat* chronological order...

Eli: NO....you will never get this warm, warm heating pad back...ever!

How Austin copes with Mark being out of town....shoes....lamenting...more shoes....

Best. Game. Ever.  As long as you don't mind being a totally inappropriate, non-PC a-hole in front of your friends...which I don't...so...best game ever.

Derby weekend came and went....nearly as fast as the fastest two minutes in sports!  Spent Oaks evening having drinks in the screen room at our house & playing some Cards Against Humanity.

 Molly...our 'niece dog' hanging at my sister's Derby Party.  Sweetest girl ever...Molly that is...LOL

My Mom & I on Mother's Day:

Thanks to my friend Dayna, I found the PERFECT Mother's Day gift for my mom.  A custom/personalized locket/charm from Origami Owl....this is the one I got my Mom:

And I don't have to be a mom to have gotten myself one as well...my Origami Owl locket:

Inquiring minds MUST know...the true size of the ears....my hand versus Austin's ears:

Both dogs...one pic...no fighting...bed was made...perfection:

You can just see the sass oozing out of him....ATTITUDE...work it, LOL

Austin & I on National Hi-Five Day!

A day at Churchill Downs....didn't win money...but we drank bourbon with friends all day....I'll mark that in the 'win' column any day!

Mark & I track-side at Churchill Downs:

Cannot tell you the degree to which I cannot stand his ears being turned inside out...they were both that way, so he came & sat next to me:

Still turned inside out....just before I couldn't take it any longer and fixed them, LOL

"I want a cat named Larry"...we needed a barn cat...so we got one and named her Larry.

Austin has no idea how tall he is....

"Look, Ma...I found the only bit of shade in our yard!!" ~Austin

Mark enjoying some sushi & sake at Sake Blue:

Ah...the freedom of sticking your head out the car window! 

Went on a walk with the dogs, and saw these trees.  Pretty and smelled great.  Some type of Magnolia, I think.

Finally, water added to boat!

 FIRST in the water...75 degrees!  

Mark, just chillin' on the boat:

Memorial Day at the lake:

Hey there!  Look who finally decided to get in the water!

The dogs in their patriotic scarves for Memorial Day....who said these two couldn't be civilized??  Wait...that was me...yep...I'm the one who said that.

Dinner out on the deck at Havana Rumba!

Dinner at Havana Rumba!

"I don't always just sit around looking gorgeous...but when I do...I must have decorative pillows to sit on..." ~Eli

NOT a morning person...

Take me out to the ball game....the Louisville Bats home game at Slugger Field.

There you have it, blog fans and dog fans!  Life as we've known it over the past month or so!  Hoping to get back on track with ToT, soon!  I promise!!

Together on Tuesday: Sometimes...There are No Words...

Happy Tuesday, everyone.  After yesterday's terrible explosions in Boston, we are taking a pause in our weekly postings to try and say some words when there just doesn't seem to be any words to help us understand.

First Things First
I first want to extend my thoughts and prayers to everyone involved in yesterday's deadly bombings in Boston, MA.  Especially to those injured and to those who lost family members in this tragedy.  First and foremost, our wishes for physical and emotional recovery are with each of you.  Our thoughts are also with the First Responders who risked their own safety to get the injured to medical treatment and secure the safety of everyone in the vicinity of the explosions.

The World We Live In
It saddens me deeply that we live in a world where we have slipped from only hearing about these tragic events happening here in our homeland from time to time, to hearing about them nearly every week, month, etc...nearly anytime we turn on the news.  In less than the past year, we have had the Aurora, CO movie theater shootings, the Sandy Hook school shooting, and now the bombs at the Boston Marathon.  As a society, how should we respond?  How should we react?  I fear that because these things are occurring so much more frequently that we may build up some sort of complacency toward hearing of these terrible things.  As a kid, I only remember these large-scale tragedies happening infrequently in the United States; and they only happened frequently in far-off lands of war torn and third-world countries.  Places so far away, that my mind as a suburban American child didn't truly really register the full breadth of what had happened - I now realize that mindset was a luxury - it didn't fully resonate with me, because it didn't need to.  Those horrible things weren't happening anywhere near me, as a child, I did not have to fear for my safety in school, or in any other public places.  So, I was afforded the luxury of having a sort of detached empathy for the victims.  However, as we all know, this has changed dramatically in recent years and we, as Americans, are no longer afforded the luxury of far-removed sympathy for victims half a world away that we will never meet and will likely never hear of again.  From Columbine to Sandy Hook,and many, many other school shootings in between to September 11 and yesterday's bombings at the Boston Marathon are just a very short listing of the tragedies that we have endured as a nation in recent years.  If we do build up some sort of emotional tolerance to these events, then will people stop looking and fighting for the answers of how to make this stop?  I hope and pray that does not become the case.  It is NOT okay for an eight year-old boy waiting in excitement to see his father cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon to die for doing that.  It is not okay, and it will never be okay for that tragedy to have happened.  There are now too many voids in the world left by the legacy of each person who has been lost to these senseless acts of violence.  This is not okay.  It is not okay to have many, many holes in the world where a great person once existed and now does not because of these events.

Why?
I really wish I knew the answer to this, so that I could go and fix it and these things would stop happening.  I know that in the wake of these tragedies there are always multiple political platforms of blame and finger wagging at some one or two hot topic issues 'du jour'.  However, in my gut, I feel that there is NO single answer to stop this.  I think that there are multiple different aspects that have given rise to this sort of large-scale violence.  It isn't because one person was able to buy gun(s), it isn't because of one specific type of mental illness, it isn't just because of how one person felt that society was outcasting them as an individual, it isn't just because a movie and/or video game had a particular level of violence.  In the conversations and debates that follow these tragic events, people want to try and finger point to one specific catalyst that set off or aided the people who carry out these violent acts.  Rather, I believe, it is a multitude of these negative forces all working in tandem that is giving rise to these acts of senseless violence.  Sadly, there is no one-deal-fixed band-aid solution for this problem.  There just isn't.  Until we stop fighting, arguing, and debating and admit that we have a much more complex issue than just one political hot-button topic, we are never going to find a preventative solution.  We have to set aside what political party we are registered with, our religious differences, and our staunch opinions of who we want to be elected.  We have to set aside our personal agendas and our ulterior motives.  We have to work together.  We have to talk.  More importantly, we have to listen and be willing to listen to people who are from different walks of life than we are from.  No one person, and no one magical piece of legislation will stop any of this.  Until we kick down the barriers we've built to wall ourselves off from one another and start showing kindness to one another, this will keep happening.  We must start being kinder to one another.  Clearly this "me, me, me....now, now, now" society we have created is not working.  Lest we forget that our country is called the UNITED States for a reason?  We need to reinvigorate our ability to unite as a country and take a stand against this violence. The answer starts with simple kindness.  If every single person would be kinder just one time each day, imagin what a better place this world would be.

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

~Plato*

*There are a number of resources that debate the origination of this quote; however, a number of academic resources credit the quotation to Plato.  This exact version of this quote is most commonly attributed to Plato.  There are also a number of variations of this quote that are attributed to others, or to unknown speakers.

Daily Photo: April 13

Chores, chores, chores....

Spring has finally sprung!  But that means tackling an onslaught of chores that we'd been able to push off as long as winter stuck around.  Nothing in life comes free, there is always a trade off.  So, in exchange for the warm sunshine we've been getting, it was time for the first lawn mowing of the year.  Mark took to the riding mower with his headphones and off he went.  Happy Spring chores, everyone!

Daily Photo: April 11

Damn it Feels Good to be a Gangster

Anyone recognize the above line?  Anyone?  Oh, come on, if you know Mark and I, you know it is a line from a song in one of our favorite movies.  That's all I am giving you.  But if you know it, then treat yourself to a nice shiny quarter and whatever that will buy these days (good luck finding something you can buy for a quarter, LOL).

Eli prides himself on having a badass image around the house, so I think it is hilarious when I catch him in sweet little times like this!  Almost as if to say, "I don't always carry a shiv...but when I do, I carry it like a gangster."  His little dog, big attitude cracks me up.

Daily Photo: April 10

Goose Whose Coming to Dinner?

Do you see that duck standing on the ledge (almost looks like part of the scene painted on that wall - but make no mistake, that duck was real and was there).  So for the longest time, the duck just watched those people eat and most of that time, they had NO IDEA the duck was even there watching them.  It was hilarious, because that duck was so brazen and they were so oblivious to its presence.  In the meantime, the waiter was trying to politely tempt the duck away from the table by bringing out a tray (of bread, I presume) for the duck.  No dice, he was more into people watching than dining.  Finally, after several attempts, the waiter's previously futile efforts paid off and the duck had himself some dinner and took off.

Daily Photo: April 9

Spring Projects!

This is at my sister's house.  Every Spring, they get themselves knee deep into some home-improvement project with the hard deadline being Derby Day because they host a great Derby Party every year.  This year included re-painting the living room and kitchen, and also putting up this amazing ceramic tile back-splash along the span of their kitchen counters.  My brother-in-law has done several tiling projects at their house over the years and he always does an amazing job.  So jealous of their new tiled back-splash, love it!  They also put in the under-cabinet lighting like we have in our kitchen.  If you find yourself never having enough lighting in your kitchen counter workspace, I HIGHLY recommend some under counter lighting.  We use ours every single day and it also adds a nice, elegant look to your kitchen as well at minimal cost.

I also love the look of the empty paper towel roll...  Actually, the kitchen is still in a dramatic state of being worked on, so I just took the pic in a corner where you could see the final product.  We'll overlook the empty paper towel roll this one time, LOL.

Daily Photo: April 8

BALLOONS!!! 
Mark decided that he was going to teach himself the delicate art of making balloon characters. Of course, like anything else, he mastered it like a pro in about five minutes, without busting one dang balloon while learning.  He made me this balloon flower, a balloon poodle, and made Austin a balloon dog collar with a giant Milkbone shaped tag on it.