P.A.D. February 12th

When I was a senior in college I lived in a complex called Madison Square. I drove by today to see if my roommate's bike, lovingly called "The Booger," was still chained to the bike rack. My friends, it is the end of an era...the booger is gone. I think it stayed on that bike rack for about 9 years, but it's gone now. The booger was Jane's mom's bike and then hers. It was a bright green bike, very old school, but it served its purpose well, getting Jane back and forth to class. We used to wonder how long it would be chained there and now I know, not forever! So I took this picture of the bikes that are there now. Not one of them was electric green and not one of them was rusting and I have to say, I'm feeling a bit nostalgic.

P.A.D. February 8th

This picture makes me feel like I'm ready for spring even though we've hardly had any winter weather. We went outside to play today, all bundled up, and the kids jumped into the sandbox and played in the damp and clumpy sand. They spent most of the time outside dumping bowls full of sand onto the plastic picnic table. They were having a birthday party. I love how kids can take any kind of toy and use it in any kind of weather or situation. They don't need warm weather and a swimming pool or ocean to have fun with sand. All they need are a few tools, some buckets that aren't broken (a hard thing to find in our house) and a great imagination (we have an overabundance of that!)

P.A.D. February 7th

I spent a half hour or so in downtown Harrisonburg taking pictures on Thursday. I took a few pictures of downtown scenery, nothing riveting. It was a lot colder than I had expected, so I wasn't dressed very warmly. I decided to head for home and as I was driving down Mason Street, where a lot of JMU students live, I saw this van. I absolutely love how happy it looks. It reminds me of something Jane would drive! What a cool way to make a "mom car" look hip.

P.A.D. February 6th

Tonight (2/6/08) we had ham and white bean stew for dinner with homemade bread from Shank's Bakery. It was a garlic and herb sourdough loaf and was delicious. I need to try to make bread that looks like this. I use the breadmaker all the time, but I haven't made dough and braided it or cooked it in any special sort of way. I should try, but for now, I'm content with this bread, made by loving local hands for me to eat!

P.A.D. February 5th

This is one of my favorite pictures so far. I went to the JMU Arboretum on the 5th to hike and take some pictures. I love the starkness of all the trees and the blue of the sky.

Addition to February 4th P.A.D.

I wanted to give Peyton some screen time too in this picture a day project. She was sitting at the breakfast bar reading a magazine and wearing her bathrobe, at 3pm. While I was looking at her, I thought to myself, wow this is what she's going to look like as an adult, enjoying her morning coffee and newspaper. She looks so grown up. It's hard to remember what she looked like as a baby. These 3 1/2 years have gone so fast.

P.A.D. February 4th

I love this picture of Liam. He was playing so quietly so I snuck up on him to see what he was doing and to snap the picture. As soon as he heard the camera's click, he turned around and said, "CHEE." I am a huge fan of unposed, candid pictures.

P.A.D. February 3rd

These pictures were taken in our yard after we rode our bikes to the grocery store. We pulled the kids in the bike trailer and they loved taking a quick ride. The family picture was inspired from another blog - the project was to place your camera on the ground and set the self-timer to see what kind of picture you got. I love this picture of our family, even though Liam is not too visible.

Picture a Day (P.A.D.) February 1st and February 2nd

The picture of Liam was taken before I decided to do a picture a day, and this just happened to be taken on February 1st. I took it with no flash and I think it's pretty cute. The doves were sitting on our deck on February 2nd. I grabbed my camera and took the picture out of our kitchen window. They flew away before I could get my zoom lens. My goal for the month is to better understand my camera and I'm going to try to take all my pictures without using the flash!

Little Grill's Mexi Night

We had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants tonight, The Little Grill Collective. This place is a dive but has the most delicious food. Every Tuesday they feature an all-you-can-eat plate of vegetarian Mexican food. We've been eating at the Grill for 14 or 15 years starting with our JMU days. I used to go with my dear friend, Jane, and I took this picture in her honor tonight. I wish I could have been sitting there with her enjoying the beans and rice and tacos.

A picture a day...

I have decided to take at least one picture each day for the month of February. They won't necessarily be artistic photos, although I did recently discover how to use actions in Photoshop, but they will be things that catch my eye, pictures of the kids doing fun things, etc. I'm excited to really get to know my camera and to take some (hopefully) cool pictures. I'll post as soon as I get a USB cable for my camera.

By the way, welcome to my family blog. I've wanted to do something like this for about a month as I've been reading all kinds of blogs online. I'm not sure how much I'll update, or when I will update, but you can check here for stories about the kids, pictures of our life, news from the Shenandoah Valley. And if anyone in the Meadows or Campana families has news they want sent out, I can publish for you and email that as well.