Yes! It’s that time! Time for the August Photo of the Month Contest. This month’s theme is FLOWERS. Yay! I love flowers. So much that I just noticed that April’s theme was Flowers too!

oops! Oh, well!

Here are a few photos from my series “Colors Not Usually Found in Nature”

Leave a link to your image in the comments, or use the contact button on the menu bar to send me your flower photo. Extra credit if you TITLE YOUR PHOTO! You have until midnight on August 31 (Monday) to send me your entry.

• Call for October Photo of the Month Submissions
• Call for Submissions-Reflections
• September Photo of the Month Reminder
• March Photo of the Month Submissions
• July Photo of the Month Reminder

I thought I’d better go out and investigate a bit. (okay, okay, I was looking for green. I confess.) But what I found was some of the ravages of winter.

It would seem that the flower pots did not fare well this winter.

They didn’t fare well at all. Sigh.

The finches don’t think it’s spring yet either.

We had such a nice, brief glimpse of spring last weekend. I’m not liking the return to winter. Not. At. All.

• Winter Blues
• March Photo of the Month Theme
• Other Signs of Autumn
• Don’t You Wish
• Further Proof

I know, I know…amazing, huh? But I might have been wrong. Don’t tell SuperGuy though! I’ll never hear the end of it.

Look what I found outside my front door!

A darling purple flower. Yes, in the ground cover that I’ve begged SuperGuy to pull out. We even had a ground cover poll in hopes to convince SuperGuy that it had to go, remember that? (You guys voted that if he kept it he should buy me camera stuff… Love ‘ya guys!)

Anyway, it’s starting to fill in again. (which will annoy me later this spring when it chokes out my daffodils and tulips…but I digress…) But for now, it has pretty little purple flowers on it. I love anything with color this time of year!

Yes, if SuperGuy see this he’s going to say “I told you so.” Sigh. Hate that.

In other news. I updated the Wordpress plugin for the polls that I use on this blog. I broke all the old polls. They changed something in the code to make it compatible with something in the newer versions of Wordpress. I had to go back and find each poll, edit the post, and manually change the code for each poll.  Took forever. I was exhausted and forced to go sit down and have a Blue Moon. The things I do for you guys. ( I appear to be on a smilie roll today… )

(If you missed yesterday’s post, go hop back and read it. I announced the theme for the photo of the month contest for March).

• Attack of the Groundcover
• Rocky Mountain Sunset
• The Saga of a Blog Post
• Exciting Poll!
• Rare Spring Day

I’m happy. Really, honestly happy with my life now. Oh, I’d like a few people in my life to have better health, but otherwise, I’d really not change much. It was a long, hard battle to get to this point in my life. You would not have recognized me 15 years ago.

What makes a person wake up and finally, FINALLY, do something to change their life? Why do some people find this inner strength and move out of the rut , valley chasm that they’ve slipped into and scramble their way up to a new life?

I was talking to a friend today about how sometimes I just need to pinch myself. I can’t believe how far I’ve come, and how my life is just crystallizing into the life I want. Oh, it was hard work to get here, but now it’s so nice to be at that point where I’m, well, happy!

And I find I’ve changed my outlook on life too. I spend more time noticing the small things in life.

How many tiny moments like this did I miss before? When I looked at the down side of things and thought that which would go wrong, will go wrong. But after deciding to make big changes in my life, I’ve turned into a more positive person. I avoid the toxic people that drag me down. I speak up for myself. I’ve found out that I’m a strong person and can do amazing things. But I still don’t know what gave me that inner strength to start down this road. But however I found it, I’m thankful I did. If you’re around me for very long, you’re liable to hear me say “I love my life.” And maybe hear it more than once… But do people who have that positive attitude about their life, attract more of the things they love and the things they want to happen into their lives? I think so.

Sometimes, my life is so full, that I’m sorry for everyone who isn’t me. Oh, I’m not saying I don’t have my moments. That stress doesn’t creep in. That we don’t have bad things happen. Everyone does. But, by and large, I’m Happy. No, REALLY happy.

I’m not sure why it took me so many years to figure out that happiness begets more happiness, and life is what you make of it. Why couldn’t I have learned that life lesson in my twenties? Are you happy with your life? And if not, are you doing anything to change it?

(these Cardinals out my window seem to nudge me into some deep thinking, don’t they?)

• Really Happy Person
• I Live in a Black and White World
• Really Happy Person-Recheck
• Life in Focus-Who You Are
• Sunrise, Sunset

So, I freely admit, I’m not much of a TV watcher. I missed the whole Sex in the City thing when it was on HBO (we don’t get premium stations). It ran from 1998 through 2004…and I never saw an episode. I knew, but vaguely, that there was some girl who wore wildly flamboyant outfits and had lots of shoes. That was about my extent of knowledge about the show. But I started watching some of the reruns on TBS at night when I didn’t feel like reading before bed. I’m a bit disappointed that none of the characters on the show were happy with their life without a man in it. None were satisfied with just being themselves. But I’m intrigued by Carrie’s outfits on the show. I can’t even imagine dressing like that…

So now that they’ve made a Sex in the City movie, due out in May 2008, I was curious. So I searched out a trailer for the movie

Doesn’t really answer any questions, or tell much of anything. I’m not sure I’ll make it to the movie, but I’m sure I’ll catch it on DVD as soon as that comes out.

Have you ever missed any of the hot TV shows out there and felt totally out of the loop when people were talking about them?

• My All Time Favorite Movie
• In a Reflective Mood
• Really Happy Person-Recheck
• Really Happy Person
• Are You Happy? No, REALLY Happy?

So I started out the day fairly cranky. I have a day of taxes ahead of me. W2’s for the business, figuring out quarterly taxes. And I have to pay bills. And juggle money. The coffee isn’t strong enough. My back hurts. I never got the laundry done this weekend. You can’t even thread your way through the garage to the trash cans to take out the trash. It’s a horrible day. I’ve already talked myself into it.

Then I glanced out the side window at the rosy sunrise sneaking across the horizon. The shades of pink brightening as I sit and watch the day come into focus.

I looked out the main window and I see this little guy waiting for his turn at the bird feeder. Watching me with a get-over-it-already expression

As the daylight awakens all the birds they start singing their various songs, welcoming the dawn and mocking my mood. I realize I’ve talked myself into a bad mood, and it’s just as easy to talk myself out of it. The coffee actually tastes pretty good today, now that I think about it. It’s going to be a great day. It’s all in how you look at it.

• Hello? It’s a Bird Feeder
• First Indigo Bunting
• How Males Do Chores
• Feed the Birds-Part Two
• Call it a Day

Do you ever go back and reread your old posts? I went back and browsed through some posts from when I started this blog back in 2005. I’d forgotten some of the things I’d done that year. Little things in life that had caught my attention. Like how I come up with blog topics or how I hated my couch and then finally got a new one. or little bits of education about seat ganks

But the most fun was just reading a sentence here or there about things going on it my life. Old pictures from conferences. Some topics I’d like to cover again and see how my opinions have changed in the last two years.

So, do you ever go back and browse through your old blog posts?

• A couch by any other name…
• YouYou MeMe
• DandelionBlog
• Further Seat Gank Education
• Signs of Aging

So it’s autumn here. The weather just doesn’t know it yet. Here is a stray flower that is managing to survive

and this one:

I’m SO not ready for winter… Though I do miss writing in front of the fireplace

• What I Miss Most
• Winter Blues
• Barefoot in November
• Life in Focus-Autumn
• Other Signs of Autumn

but it amuses me! I’m going to try and get this to post at 7:07 am my time. If I can get Wordpress to believe what time zone I’m in.

• Trying to get up the nerve
• I might have been wrong.
• I Love Wordpress
• What can I do to help, Honey?
• Think Good Thoughts

So, did you know that if you go to Bordersstores.com (notice all the ’s in that or you won’t get to the right place…) You can go in and search their inventory in a particular store and see if they have the book you want RIGHT NOW. Yes, better than waiting for Amazon to ship, or running around town checking bookstore after bookstore. (okay, there is NOTHING wrong with going to a bunch of bookstores, but sometimes I just don’t have the time). I live in a big city. There are tons of Borders and Barnes & Noble stores. But I go to Borders 99% of the time because I can already KNOW if they have what I’m looking for.

Barnes & Noble should get a clue…

As an aside– for you techies out there…Circuit City also has this feature. You can tell if your technical need want is in stock at the store near you!:mrgreen:

So while I still do the majority of my shopping online…I’m really not much of an in person shopping person, I do love the stores that have grabbed a clue and put their inventory system online so you can check and see if they have what you want in stock.

• Christmas Shopping Poll
• Artful Blogging
• The Siren Call of a Pretty Notebook
• Thursday Thoughts
• Danger!