Lovely Day With Liz

This morning Autumn and I got up and watched cartoons in my bed for a little bit while we snuggled. Then we got hungry and went and made a breakfast burrito w/ eggs and cheese and sausage. Autumn looked up at me with a sparkle in her eye and asked, “We go eat this in your bed?” I just laughed in surprise that she would even know about eating breakfast in bed. And since she asked so sweetly, how could I resist? So, we took our breakfast burrito and went and ate it in my bed all snuggly and warm while we watched Mickey Mouse Club House.

Liz and I had decided earlier in the week that we needed to get out of our respective houses on Saturday, so Autumn & I got ready for the day and Liz came over at 11:00 and we drove to a nearby town to check out their downtown area. We found a good parking spot and set off on foot to explore the area. Liz wanted to go look in this store, and it was really cute, but way too overpriced so we didn’t buy anything, just did some looking.

I was pleasantly surprised by how cute and quaint downtown is. Everywhere I turned, there were good places to take photos. It was a GORGEOUS day with absolutely PERFECT weather (72 degrees w/ a light breeze).

We walked around for a little bit and then stopped at The Pantry to get something to eat b/c Autumn & I were hungry.

There are so many things I love about The Pantry like its old fashioned country store type feel, or how the wooden floor boards creak as you step on them, to the tasty home-cooked food they serve. However, the best part of The Pantry is the desserts. Liz got the warm chocolate chip cookie pie w/ whipped cream and I got the layered strawberry delight with a shortbread cookie crust. Both were absolutely delectable.

After we ate our lunch (we didn’t just get dessert), we had to check out more of downtown. There was a cute little store on the corner where the owners of the store have a Shih Tzu dog that looks like Lola and it was sitting in the doorway of the store and Autumn thought it was Lola. Liz had to keep telling her that Lola was at home.

We walked past this sign that said, “Love your kids, but don’t love their behavior?” And it was for licensed professional counselors so I told Autumn to go stand by it and smile and this is what she did! It made me laugh so hard and maybe I need to pick up one of those flyers, huh?

We walked past this furniture store and I fell in love with these chairs the second I saw them. Then, I fell right out of love with them as soon as I saw they were $450 each! It was a short little love affair, but I’ll always have this picture to remember them by.

Like I said, awesome photo opportunities everywhere we went.

Autumn LOVED it when we walked past this store. She liked the pink crown benches and the zebra print. It’s a cute store where they have birthday parties for little girls. They do their hair and make up and I’ll have to look into how much it would cost to have Autumn’s party here next year.

We went in another store and Autumn was obsessed with sitting on this bench in the dressing room. She kept telling me to come in there and take a picture of her and as soon as I did, she jumped down and left! Little stinker!

Downtown isn’t very big so after a few hours we had seen about everything we wanted to see. Autumn had a BLAST running around and showing us how fast her new shoes made her. On the way back to the car, we saw this really cool old building and had to stop and get a picture. I love that Liz is striking her "model pose” and Autumn’s just standing there like whatever.

After we stopped and got some gas, we went to Mom & Dad’s house to watch Ramona & Beezus. Mom had rented it last night and both Liz & I wanted to watch it. It was a really cute movie and we all enjoyed it. Right as it ended, Liberty came walking in the door from being done with work. Perfect timing. Autumn wanted to go outside and run around b/c it was so nice outside. So, she put on her sunglasses and her fast shoes and we came outside. She drove her little truck for about 10 seconds but didn’t want to drive it anymore b/c it was on the fast setting and I think that scared her. So, Liberty & Liz were nice and put the truck back in the shed.

We walked over to the lot so Autumn could throw sticks in the stream, but Liberty was the one that ended up having the most fun by throwing rocks in the water. Liz finally had to tell him it was time to go b/c he was having too much fun, and didn't want to leave.

While we were throwing rocks into the creek, some dogs from across the creek came over and down to the water to get a drink and then came up the bank of the creek (which was pretty steep) and then they followed us home. We kept trying to shew them off to go back home but they didn’t leave until we went in the gate to the backyard and they realized they couldn’t follow us. I hope they found their way back home.

As soon as we walked in the door, Mom told Liberty that she needed his help b/c a bird had gotten in the house. We had the back door open b/c it was so nice outside and this little bird was flying around in the living room.

It was perched on the antique window frame we had above the windows and then it would fly across the living room to the window frame on the other side. Liberty put a garbage bag on the end of our pool skimmer to try and catch it. It would just fly back and forth and then once it flew into the kitchen and Liz let out a scream. I got a fly swatter and just held it in the air to block the way to the kitchen so the bird wouldn’t try to go that way again. That wasn’t working, though, so I opened the door to the garage so it might fly out that way or the back door and then I got a broom to help direct it and before we knew it, the bird flew out the garage door to its freedom.

Liz and I were laughing b/c earlier when we were watching the movie I told her our lives are boring and not that exciting. She’s always saying my blog makes it look like we have fun all the time, and we do have fun, but most of the time it’s boring. I just highlight the fun stuff. Anyways, we started laughing b/c she said, “I knew if I just stuck around for a little bit longer that something fun and exciting would happen.” I guess she was right.

After they left, it went back to being boring b/c we just watched TV for a while and then at 8:00, I took Autumn home and put her to bed so I could go over to Dangerfield’s. I got there and Marcus was there so we played Press Your Luck (no whammies, no whammies. Big bucks, big bucks) on the Wii and were laughing so hard and having so much fun. After that, I had Ruthie help me edit a picture in Photoshop. (See below for the before and after.) We weren’t able to change the background like I had hoped, b/c it looked too fake when we did. But, I learned quite a few new things. One was how to remove things from a picture (like the fire alarm in the left hand corner and the things to hang pictures in the right hand corner). Another thing we were able to do to fix it up was crop it and tilt it so the top of the door frame wasn’t visible b/c that made the picture look crooked. She also showed me how to change someone’s face if they look good in another picture but bad in the one you want to use. I hope Mou’s family likes the picture and can use it. If I ever do this a next time, I will make sure we have a better background.

I can’t decide if I like the 1st picture better where the colors are softer or if I like the saturated colors in the 2nd one. Any opinions? I am so thankful to Ruthie for teaching me so much about Photoshop, and I was happy that I could re-create everything she showed me in Photoshop Elements. I finally left at 10:30 and got home and went to bed so I can be up early for church tomorrow.