Sometimes I surprise myself

There are times when miracles can be wrought with a simple point-and-shoot Nikon and a button-pusher with ten thumbs and a shaky hand. Isn't that pretty? I took a lightning trip down to Madison last Thursday to see Carol and Susie and we went to the river to talk after we ate dinner. At one point, the sky was so lovely and the water was so serene, I lifted the camera up to my face and clicked and this is what I came up with. For some reason, when I look at this picture, the only appropriate response seems to be "Amen."

Miss Cutie

I thought it might be nice to post pictures of the girls in which they weren't wearing exercise garments and having their hair all scraped back with barrettes and all that, so today, I asked Meelyn to sit down in the chair that figures so largely in many of our photos and give me a big, gleaming, sweet-sixteeny kind of smile. So she did, wearing the new sweater she just bought with some of her hard-earned money.

I wish someone had told me years ago that some teenagers act like Meelyn, because then I wouldn't have been nearly so worried. She makes it all smooth sailin'.

His Supreme Dorkiness

The girls said it wasn't fair to post a picture of Wimzie on InsomniMom and then not post a picture of Hershey, even though I seriously do not know what will happen to me if Wimzie ever finds out that I invaded her privacy in such a brazen manner.

So here is Hershey, looking much cuter than he actually is, perking up his ears as he asks, "Uhhhh, does that little silver box something in it for a boy to eat? Because it's been half an hour since I stole a piece of toast off Aisling's plate and it's not quite time for my morning nap, so that must mean a snack is in order."

My husband calls Hershey a "Beltie." His mother was a Sheltie, a beautiful girl named Candy, and his father was the beagle next door, a mésalliance to be sure. Especially where Hershey is concerned. He has a smallish, pointed Sheltie head, topped by those large ears, a chunky beagle body, a long, whippy beagley tail with a white tip on the end, and four lo-o-o-ong, dainty Sheltie legs. It's an interesting mixture, one that sometimes causes strangers to flinch and children to hide their faces in their mothers' legs.

Hershey barks like a beagle, especially when he's nervous, which is a lot. This dog has been known to tuck his tail and run for Mommy when a falling leaf touched him gently on the back. He yelps "Bork!!! Booooo-r-r-k!!!! Booooo-o-o-ork!!!!" and we're probably lucky the neighbors all find him a congenial mutt, or they probably would have called the police on us.

Every night, when it's time to go to bed, Hershey runs eagerly back to his crate, even though he's spent the past sixteen hours lolling on the couch, stretched out on his special towel with his special pillow beneath his head. He goes into his bed, rearranges his blankets, and places his pink pillow (he has many pillows designated for his use scattered around the house) where he likes it best, up near the door of the crate where he can see anyone who walks into the laundry room without lifing his head. He's content there until around nine o'clock the next morning, which is when he begins a steady and irritating campaign to be set free, uttering squeaky noises and rattling the door with an insistent paw as if to say, "Hey. HEY. HEYYYYYY!!!!! I'm IN HERE. Like, STILL. And I'd like to PEE and have some of your breakfast. And people, THERE ARE MAIL CARRIERS TO BARK AT AND NAPS TO TAKE AND I CAN'T DO THOSE THINGS FROM IN HERE!"

Somehow, he always gets his way. It must be those ears.

Have I figured out this camera thing?

Okay. So I'm a little timid about technology. It has taken me years to get a digital camera, and then when I finally got one, it's been like, well, A YEAR before I learned how to use it.

But really, it's not enough just to learn how to use the digital camera: You have to learn how to get the pictures out of the camera and onto the internet where all your friends can see them and quit their everlasting griping admire the cuteness of your dog or your new haircut or your applesauce streusel muffins.

Let me give you a hint: The pictures don't come out by you either dismantling the camera and peering anxiously into its innards or by shouting "Open sesame! Pictures, come forth! Grrrr!!!! STUPID CAMERA!!!!" The pictures also don't post themselves on the internet by you rubbing your camera on the screen of the monitor. Huh! Found that one out the hard way!

So anyway, if I have this right, you should be looking at an image of Wimzie, looking very cute and hiding her true disposition, which is to violently eat the face off someone pointing a camera in her direction. If you're seeing a white box with a red x in it, either I did something wrong or you need to clean out your cache and guess which one I bet it is?

Please let me know if you can see Wimzie and make me the happiest digital camera owning girl in the whole wide world.