{ Love watching birds }

When we lived in Arizona, I used to spend many days out in the back yard, with my camera in hand.  We had so many birds flying around and they would come into the yard, stand on the fence, fly around and eat the bird seed we would set out for them.

I even had a bird feeder right in front of my kitchen window so that I could just grab the camera and snap pictures as they came by to feed.

Since then I haven't really done much bird watching, I'll snap a picture here and there but nothing like it used to be, I mean I even had an album on Flickr designated to just bird photos.

Anyway.  It was such a gorgeous afternoon yesterday, so I spent some time in the back yard, catching some sun, reading a little and bird watching.

I'll be reviewing Monticello very soon, and I'm really enjoying it.  The story centers around Thomas Jefferson and his daughter Martha, and of course Monticello which was Jefferson's primary plantation.

The sun was absolutely glorious and Marley and I enjoyed just sitting, quietly, listening to the birds and feeling that warm sun on us.

The birds were all around us, flying in and out, going about their business.

Love getting action photos, catching them as they fly around, their beautiful wings gracefully flapping up and down.

It's not always easy catching them in action though, more often than not I get a big ol' blur of a wing or a total blur of a bird.  But then you get that perfectly timed shot that captures them in action, and it makes me smile.

I've been a bit busy the past few days but I'm still trying to stay on top of blogging and housework and summer in general.  It seems to be going by so fast and before I know it, school will be back in session.  Oh boy!!!

This morning I had to get groceries.  Usually I do the shopping for two weeks but since Curt just switched from his contracting job to the GS Position, the pays have been all off.  He only gets his new pay next week, and so I'm trying to pay bills and shift things around the new pay dates.

It's always a bit of a confusion at first, until we settle into a rhythm.  Takes me a month to see when everything comes in and how much comes in, to be able to adjust the budget accordingly and shift bill dates around here and there.

I won't miss that part of the budget, trust me.  I'm so glad and so blessed and thankful to God for this permanent position and knowing that this is it, no more wondering, no more waiting to see when the pay comes or how much etc.  This will hopefully be the last time I need to work around the budget.

I planned on getting groceries just for one week and then doing my usual two week shopping next week when his actual pay comes in, but I can't do it.  I am so used to buying for two weeks at a time, that this is not going to work.  So I pretty much bought my usual grocery shopping, except that I only planned meals for this coming week, but everything that is not meal related, mainly the meats, chicken etc., has been bought.  Next week I'll just quickly plan some meals and buy just the meats that I need.

Tomorrow I need to get my car registration done, which means taking the car to get the inspection done first.  It's all still a little strange to me, I never had to do any of this in Idaho or Arizona.  Oh well.

I'm going to run and get my pizza dough ready for dinner, I'm making Crazy Pizza Bread, which by the way, if you've never tried it, you don't know what you're missing.

Then I'm going to throw in a load in the wash, sit and watch today's General Hospital and start on my Part 7 of the Atlanticus.  I finished Part 6 and it's finally right on track with the stitch count, thank goodness.

Well friends, I hope you have a fantastic Friday.  Ooohhhhh and as I'm typing this I just got a pop up from the school letting me know that Nick's materials have been shipped.  Wasn't I just talking about how soon school would start?  Hahah

Have a good one everyone :)