Gateway

Today my dad finished this arbor/gate thing that he made at Fernwood.  Josie posed with her usual cheesy grin to commemorate the occasion. 

At the park

Runs in the family

Looks like Josie has caught the photography bug too!

Toothy

I went to the dentist today for the first time in three years (I know, I'm not proud of it).  Miraculously, I still have no cavities.  I'm not going to chance it anymore though, it's regular dental check ups for me from now on.  Being that one of my dominating features is my big toothed grin, I think I ought to take good care of it.

Train garden

At Fernwood Botanical Gardens in Niles, MI.

Going out with a bang

 

Today was the end of YTT (at least the daily class part, practicum still to come!) and we let loose after our finals with some silliness out on the lawn.  I wish I would have directed these photos a bit better to make sure everyone was more visible, but we were having fun and you can only ask people to jump so many times!

Then tonight Josie, Phillip and I, along with my dad and sister, went to see fireworks and the South Bend symphony at St. Patrick County Park.  I found out photographing fireworks is a lot of fun, and I tried to get a good shot of my sister and Josie watching the fireworks, though that was really challenging in the very low light.

The sitar player

Taken at Lang Lab tonight, where the Sacred Waters Kirtan band was playing.

Finding her wheel

While working on wheel pose and how to assist in it, trainee Marie had a bit of a break through in this pose and found herself in a beautiful wheel.  Very cool to watch, and photograph of course.

Order from chaos

Working on my class that I will teach as my final for YTT on Saturday.  Hopefully somewhere from this mess that has taken over my coffee table will emerge a beautiful, flowing, energizing yet relaxing asana experience (not too much to expect from my first class, right?).  

Crossing the river

Scenes from YTT

My fellow YTT trainees, and our very lovely and very pregnant teacher Sarah Tomlinson.  Not the best photos ever, I was trying to take a few shots and also pay attention, and I'm afraid I didn't do a good job of either!

The guardian

Dragon detail above the front door of the Remedy Building in South Bend, which houses Dhanwantari.

Inside joke

Went to a little get together today to say goodbye to Tom (the fella with the underwear hat above) before he leaves for India.  I'd explain said underwear on head, but I think it was one of those "you had to be there" things. 

Storytime

Passed down

Looking for a subject for a photo tonight, and noticed that this bear, which was mine when I was a kid, was sitting on this child size rocking chair, that was my husband's when he was little.  Both of this things are now Josie's.  I think this little chair stands a much better chance of being passed on again, my bear is looking pretty rough, missing an eye, his nose had to be glued back on, and he has several holes in him.

Puja

Took a quick shot of the Puja at Dhanwantari today during a break.

These little piggies

Are sore!  My muscles are actually doing pretty well, but funny things are bothering me, like my toes. 

Beautiful day in the neighborhood

It was an absolutely perfect weather day today.  I went for a walk along the St. Joseph river today during my lunch break from yoga training, and it was the perfect temperature and there was a beautiful breeze blowing little cotton fuzzy seed things around which were shining in the sunlight.  It was the perfect day to sit and watch the clouds (though it wasn't as much fun as when Josie and I do this together and find animal shapes and stuff).  Then I laid down under this gorgeous tree for a bit and just enjoyed listening to the sounds of the wind in the leaves (and did a pretty good job blocking out the street noise actually, maybe that is a result of lots of yoga).  Anyway, took these shots to share with you all, and now I am going to rest this beat up body of mine before it is back to the mat tomorrow!  Goodnight lovely people!

Homework

Whew!  Just back from my first day of yoga training, and I'm exhausted!  But it was really great, I didn't notice how tired I was until I got in my car to drive home.  And now I have homework to do.  Homework!  I can't remember the last time I had homework.  It was kind of fun this morning to feel like a kid on the first day of school, with my books and pens and paper.  And now to do my homework, get Josie to bed, myself to bed, and do it all again tomorrow!

Reading list

So these are all the books I am reading right now.  I am showing you these not to brag, but to point out how crazy I am (and let's be honest, because it was an easy photo).  I am usually the type to have two or three books going at once, but several factors combined to somehow get me reading all of these at once.  Two of the yoga books are required for my training and just came in the other day, so I thought it a good idea to start those (I'm actually still waiting on three more to come in for my class, and am very annoyed at Amazon and the USPS that they are not here yet).  One of the other yoga books is mine I'm rereading just because it is lovely and the last one was given to me by a friend a few weeks ago.  Harry Potter is in this stack because I am rereading the whole series in order again (I do this periodically because it is my utmost wish that my letter from Hogwarts will come any day now with sincere apologies that it is 16 years late).  Dune I picked up yesterday at the library, along with the Hitchhikers Guide, intending to keep them around to read during lunch breaks from yoga class for a sci-fi escape, but couldn't help myself starting them right away.  And lastly, I found miss Bridget Jones at my father-in-laws house yesterday as I was helping them pack up their house to move and brought it home for a bit of good fluff reading, which I started reading while eating pancakes this morning.  I can just imagine the dreams I'm going to have tonight after reading a bit of each of these today: Bridget Jones obsessing over whether Harry Potter will send her an owl or not to invite her to dinner at the restaurant at the end of the universe, were they will run into a mentat meditating on the sutras in a perfect lotus posture with his handy towel close by.

(semi-inappropriate) Cake love

This is why I love baking and cooking for my husband, his almost indecent enjoyment of the food I make (in this case it was the chocolate birthday cake I made on Wednesday).

Half moon

Tonight at yoga we did a pose we don't do very often called "half moon" and while on the way home I happened to notice we had an actual half moon (or close) tonight, so it seemed a good subject.  Actually, I really suck at half moon pose, it requires a good bit of balance which doesn't come easily for me.  It was good practice though, as this Sunday I start my yoga teacher training, and I'm sure I will be challenged to do all sorts of things I don't normally do and potentially fail miserably at them the first few times.  One of the things I love about yoga is that there is no pressure to do more than you're ready for.  And I've never been competitive (even with myself) so that suits me just fine.  I may be a bit nervous of what I might be asked to do over this training (I'm not too excited to try handstand, I've been avoiding that pose) but I'm not scared of failing.  Which is nice.

Damage

So this is a small example of the damage I did when I knocked my husbands motorcycle over with my car today.  Oh yeah, and today was his birthday.  Way to go Meg.

Hot

That's what it is in our house right now, with no air conditioning.  Oh well, I'm not complaining, I'll take this over winter any day!

More from the yard

 Snow peas

 Lamb's ear

My favorite, Lavender

Thank god for my garden, it is so nice on days when I'm tired and not in the mood to be creative to just wander around my yard and snap away.  And very relaxing too.  Now if I only found weeding as therapeutic...

Dish disaster

So this is what happens when you make a huge lasagna and run out of dish soap in the same day.  Gross!

Back to the beach

First visit of the season to the beach this evening, and even though it was a bit cool it was nice to see the lake.  So much better than my last visit, which you can see here!