Day 75 Eclipse Countdown

Less that 24 hours until the new movie in the Twilight Series, Eclipse, is released! This was my favorite book of the four in the series. I am currently reading "The Short Second Life Of Bree Tanner" which is another book released to go along with Eclipse. Only a few pages to finish before I stand in line with screaming teens to see the new movie this week!

Day 74 Mud Puddle Mayhem

Another round of crazy storms blew through last night and the park was flooded for our family reunion today, but the kids were determined to have fun anyway. Here's one of the boys diving right in! Oh, to be a kid again :)

73 Another Stormy Night

It was another night of intense storms. This has been a very active weather week! After spending some time in our basement under tornado warnings I ventured out to survey the damage and capture some of the light show outside. I have struggled a bit with the night shots, but thanks to a fellow clickinmom for giving me some settings to try I was able to capture this shot of the lightning on the back end of the storm.

Day 72 Blooming Lillies

We have even more lillies in full bloom in our garden!

Day 71 Rochesterfest

What would a trip to Rochesterfest be without mini doughnuts?! YUM!

Day 70 Movie Night

Brian is out of town so James and I headed to see Toy Story 3 on the Mega Screen. It was such a great movie!!! We both liked it better than the first two...go see it!

Day 69 Summer Ball

I took an extended lunch today to catch one of James' summer Babe Ruth League baseball games...how could I possibly say no when he called me his lucky charm?! It's been a rough start to the season, but James has been hitting much better. Here he is connecting for a great hit to center field.


James was excited to be the starting pitcher for the second game of the double header today.


Unfortunately his outing was cut short as he struggled to get outs from the mound and his team struggled behind him with defense. My heart ached for him when the coach brought in a new pitcher, you can see his disappointment all over his face.

It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game. Even though he took the loss on the mound I was proud to see him cheer on the next two pitchers from his spot at second base.

Day 68 Last Day

Today I said goodbye to my co-worker and friend, Michelle. It was her last day working with us in Orthopedics, but luckily she won't be going too far away. She just recently graduated with her business administration degree and on Wednesday she will start her new job with Systems & Procedures! Here's wishing her all the best as she starts a new chapter in her life :)

Day 67 Father's Day

The Parlin Men on Father's Day: Brian, Jim and TJ

Brian's quote, "Me and my brother are going to do our fathers day usual. Show up at my parents house, make dad cook for us, and drink all his beer in celebration of what fine sons he has."

Happy Father's Day to all the amazing dad's out there, and the great men like Brian who fill that voided role!

Day 66 Driveway Fire

After the storms from Thursday we had several branches down from our trees. It was the perfect opportunity to have a fire and get rid of them. Another gorgeous relaxing evening.

Day 65 Going Away Happy Hour

Friday night we had a going away happy hour for my co-worker, Michelle. I didn't think to get out my camera until later in the night and it was just my point & shoot, but I did manage to get a couple quick snapshots. This is the guest of honor with her boyfriend, Kyle.


Courtney and I


This is a SHOT! How did I manage to get this one down???

All in all it was a fun night with a bunch of great people!

Day 64 Thursdays On First & 3rd

James and I spent Thursday afternoon at Thursdays On First & 3rd in Rochester. This is a weekly event where food, craft and other vendors set up for the day in downtown Rochester. They even have two stages for music. It's always fun to go to and this week they had a beach bash theme downtown. These are a couple of the sand castle artists. Love their bright Hawaiian shirts and big hats :) Unfortunately the fun and sun didn't last long as several tornados struck the area causing severe damage and 3 people in Minnesota lost their lives.

Day 63 Bleacher Seats

Wow, I have some catching up to do! If I am not neglecting one thing, it is another. This is from the baseball game last Wednesday.

Day 62 Relaxation

After a hectic day at work I came home to a wonderful lasagna dinner with wine :) As if that wasn't nice enough, the wind died down later and we were able to enjoy our first fire of the season at our house. It was time to get rid of all the dead branches. There is nothing more relaxing that listening to the fire crackle and pop on such a gorgeous evening!

Day 61 Hat

One of the really cool things about Stewartville baseball is that all the kids wear the same hat whether you are 7 or 17. Even the coaches and other adults don the same style hat with the same S logo. Every kid has his name embroidered on the back. This is James' well worn baseball hat. I tried to get him to upgrade to a new one, but he claims the old worn in version makes him look more experienced :) The S is no longer maroon and gold and the layers of dirt and sweat under the brim are enough to make any mom cry, but it's a right of passage for the boys. I just keep hoping that his head will grow bigger so I have an excuse to retire this one!

Day 60 Lillies and Slugs

So I started out taking a few pictures of the beautiful lillies in our back yard. Then I noticed that there were slugs all over them :( I honestly got the willies even trying to post these photos. Needless to say it's off to the gardening center to pick up some slug killer tomorrow...eww!

Day 59 Blue Eyed Boy

So I might have gotten myself in a little bit of trouble when we went for a walk in the muddy field, but how do you say no to this adorable face?!

Day 58 Sunset Jump

James was bored watching the Sharks dominate in their baseball game this evening so he was shagging foul balls and playing with his bouncy ball. I caught this picture of him jumping with his typical peace sign. I like it...even though I chopped some limbs :) What a beautiful sunset this evening. I wish there weren't so many trees in the way.

Day 57 Baby Robin

After the rain stopped this evening I went out into the back yard to photograph some flowers coming up in one of our planters. I steppped back a little farther to capture the entire group and when I turned around this baby robin was sitting not even two feet away from me on the old grape vine on our fence. He must have been scared because he never moved! I took a couple of shots with my 50mm lens and then decided I wanted to get closer. I ran into the house and grabbed my 55-250mm lens. I wasn't able to hold still enough to get a clean picture so I ran into the house yet again to get my tripod. The little bird STILL didn't move! I am guessing he hasn't been out of the nest for very long. Beautiful baby robin!

Day 56 Train

When I got to my car after work today this train was parked on the tracks next to the lot. I really liked the colors and textures. I picked this shot because I liked how the train and shadow made a diagonal line splitting the light half from the dark half of the photo. Now that I think about it, I could have gone a step further and emphasized that point even more by photoshopping the building out :)

On another note:
If you were wondering about my "What is it?" post from last Friday...

The answer was a light fixture. These are the lights that hang in the lobby of the Mayo Building. For my post last Friday I stood directly beneath one of the lights.

Day 55 More Cowbell

James in his end of the year band concert. Technically not a good photo, but it was the only time I was able to get my camera out today. I'll take what I can get from the back of a dark performing art center.

Day 54 Corn on the cob

Mmmm, our first ears of corn on the cob. Now it's summer!

Day 53 Finally....

I have been having problems posting on blogger since yesterday. Sorry it's late, but I am finally able to put up my Sunday post!


If you follow my blog at all you know that we are huge baseball fans in the summer and I have a bit of a passion for sports photography and catching that perfect moment. This was a picture of Brian pitching in his first game of the season for the Stewartville-Racine Sharks. I love the look on his face, the claw like fingers and the skin flapping on his arm..ha ha...must be the speed of delivery :) Funny reasons I am sure, but it made me smile!

On another note, this past week marked Spotty's 8th birthday. We were gone most of the week and have been too busy to celebrate so James and I picked up some DQ icecream for him (Spotty's favorite treat!) What a spoiled dog!

Day 52 Soggy Shark

Today the Stewartville-Racine Sharks played in an amature baseball tournement in New Prague, MN. Could the weather be any worse? Blech, another cold, wet game. This is Brian as he was in the on deck circle getting ready to bat.

Day 51 What is it?

What do you think this is a picture of? Let me hear your best guesses!

Day 50 Baseball in the grass

Day 49 Downtown Rochester

This is my view of downtown Rochester from the Mayo employee shuttle lot. I miss my on site parking.

Day 48 Tree Blossoms

It's that time again. Every other year this tree blossoms and drops pollen everywhere...boo! It's such a mess. I captured this blossom after it stopped raining. I think my focus would have been sharper if I had used a tripod, however I do like the bokeh. It's moments like this that really make me wish I had a macro lens!