I got it!

Our blog is picture perfect again! I purchased a "new" camera this week. Actually, it's second hand, but that makes it new to me. I really wanted a super fancy new Canon Rebel SLR camera, but I decided that it would be a good idea for me to purchase a second hand one first for practice for a few years. And the one I got is perfect... it's just not the total latest and greatest technology. But that's okay. It's a great learning camera. I've always been really interested in photography, but have never made any steps to become a better photographer. Now I have and I'm really happy about it. I've got a book and I'm learning and I may even take a class once I exhaust the "SLR Camera for Dummies" book. So over the next year or so, you'll see my progression of photo skills... at least I hope that I progress!

The pictures I have on this blog are from a few nights ago when Ellie was feeding her fish. I really haven't had a chance to take many pictures outside of that lately. We started swimming lessons again this weekend, but I couldn't take pictures because I was in the water. Minor detail to taking pictures. Every time we go to the gym, Ellie has to go see the pool. I always have to keep one had on the back of her shirt just in case she has an immediate urge to swim. But I underestimated Ellie's excitement for the water. I got her dressed in her suit and walked her out to the pool, but once she realized that we were actually getting into the pool, she started screaming and squealing. Her favorite thing to do now is crawl out of the pool and jump back to me. Again and again. She gets these crazy eyes when she's about to jump so I was getting a kick out of watching her. I've never seen her so excited about something and I mean that. All of this excitement caused her to take a 2.5 hour nap.

I practice swimming strokes with her by throwing something out in front of her and then have her use her arms to pull it toward her. She's been putting together one or two words lately, but she's yet to make a full sentence. That changed on Saturday. I threw a football out in front of her and she grabbed it. I said, "did you get it?". She excitedly replied, "I got it!". I don't know if I was more happy that her swimming stokes were spot on or that she made a full sentence.

Other than the swimming lesson, we actually had a pretty busy weekend. I attended the Junior League's Volunteer fair this weekend and worked at a booth with my friend Elizabeth answering questions for a while. Then that night, we attended a wedding for our friends David and Amy. It was a beautiful wedding and instead of leaving the reception by the usual limo or classic car, the couple decided to leave the wedding via helicopter amidst fireworks. We weren't there to see it because the party wrapped up at midnight and we left around 11:00, but I heard it was spectacular.

It was also Ben's birthday last Wednesday, so we met for lunch at El Phoenix on Sunday to celebrate. Afterwards, we drove around looking at houses. We can't quite decide if we want to remodel the house we're in or move. Both are stressful decisions. I have to shut this down because I hear the tornado sirens going off. Hope we're not blown away!