Did you think I forgot about you?

Clearly, I rarely have/make time for this blog anymore. How in the world did I post something more than just a picture for 365 days in a row my first year here? Some days I can easily post my picture on The View Across Town and other days I'm running around my house with my iPhone taking pictures of things at 11:30pm.

To share a little bit more of what I have been doing ... this post will serve as a way to catch up through photos. Here are some of my 2nd favorites from the first few weeks of 2012 that weren't picked for the other blog. Enjoy!

A visit to Park Place on January 1st for a post-holidays family brunch.

And then a family dinner that night at Molly & Erik's. This little one went around the entire table taking dessert orders (with the short-order cook, Molly, in the kitchen). She did a great job! Her reward was her own bowl of ice cream with a Girl Scout cookie on the side (that she didn't know existed until this night).

The first day back to work was tough, but I did get to go out to lunch with my fabulous teammates! Have you been to Unforked yet? It's awesome!

Playing around with the new iPhone lenses I got for Christmas from Mom. I love this macro shot.

A profile shot of my silly schnoodle.

I love my Instagram app more and more each day. This was a quick shot I took when out walking Minners.

Looking at her Momma!

Staying up too late on a school night. It's always hard to get back in bedtime routine after a break from school.

I like this one because I love to take pictures like this of the sky with beautiful clouds. Here is the same scene ... in a paint by numbers kind of way :)

We FINALLY got a little bit of snow. It didn't last long, not that I'm complaining. It's always very pretty ... but walking a dog in the snow is one of my least favorite parts of winter.

A new "portrait" taken against my favorite piece of art in my condo. Jill says it makes for the perfect photo studio background.

Wearing flip flops. In January. In Kansas. Love it! See? I told you the snow didn't last long.

A perfect day to head to the dog park. We've been close to 10 times this "winter".

Here is a photograph that's very close to the painting 5 pictures up. Such a great day to be outside!

I hope to get back to sharing things on this blog more often. I realize I may have lost many of my regular readers since it's been a while. Keep coming back ... you never know what I'll post next!

Telling stories

The last few days, I've been helping Molly & Erik at their new house. When I say "helping", I don't actually mean that I've scraped old wall paper from the walls, or pulled bags of weeds from the flower beds. I've helped by entertaining Ellen since there isn't much she can do in a big, empty house that is a construction zone right now.

To stay busy, we've picked up sticks in the front yard, watched bunnies in the backyard, colored in coloring books and told stories. Ellen has turned into quite the story teller. She remembers her favorite books well and has started "reading" to us when we come to visit.

This weekend when Ellen & I were coloring, she wanted to know about the story in her Fairy Tale coloring book. It was Hansel & Gretel and I did my best to retell what I remembered about the tale, using the blank pictures to help me. Ellen was fascinated with the witch and she's decided since last Halloween that ALL witches are "scawey". I agree, Ells. 100%. Oh, and clowns, too :)

Here she is retelling our version of Hansel & Gretel. I'd say she's ready to run her own classroom! Sit back and enjoy the story.

Not bad, huh? She insisted on watching herself on my camera multiple times that day. She likes to smirk at herself in videos, which is worthy of another video, too. If only I had multiple cameras and pairs of hands.

She doesn't mess around!

At least not when it comes to sweet treats!

Ellen clearly gets this from her mother. It's a McKnight gene: We don't share desserts. We don't turn down desserts. We like most desserts. Ellen has this same affection for sweets that comes at the end of the meal (and sometimes for breakfast - I heard she had cake for her first meal today)! Her father can often be heard saying, "Let's just get one dessert to share." No. Thank. You.

Tonight, we got together to celebrate Molly's birthday (on the 21st). Mom made an amazing meal, like she always does. We ended the night with presents and an AMAZING butterscotch cake. Mom, I'm still thinking about that cake - you need to share the recipe if you can! Ellen begged all evening for a piece of cake. She's got the birthday thing down since she just celebrated her own 2 weeks ago. She inhaled every. single. bite. Here she is, picking up the crumbs to place on her spoon, to deliver them to her mouth. Smart girl, I tell ya!

Happy, Happy Birthday, Molly!

I hope you have a fabulous day! I'm so glad we could all get together to help celebrate :)

Happy 2nd Birthday, Sweet Girl!

More information to come about the Big Top Birthday bash for Miss Ellen's 2nd birthday. It was a ton of fun, and I'm so happy to be part of her life. I was flipping through pictures tonight and thought this pose on the right looked familiar. Sure enough, here is a picture from last year that is eerily similar. This is one girl that LOVES to be sung to!

*** UPDATE: Okay ... I take it back. I'm too overwhelmed with life to follow up with more information. You can see another post with more information on Molly's blog. Check it out! ***

Do they make chapstick at Santa's Workshop?

I went over to Molly & Erik's Saturday night so I could get in my Ellen time for the week. Mom & Dad were there to babysit, and I was just there to document Ellen and all of her hilarity!

Ellen's FAVORITE thing to play with is the chapstick from Mom's purse. Seriously. She carried these tubes around for about 45 minutes. I may or may not have found some fun flavors for Ellen's stocking. Gotta love cheap Christmas presents!

For the first time ever, Ellen let me braid her hair. I've been asking to try out my french braiding skills on her for months, but she always pushes me away. This time I tricked her into saying it was how I wear my hair. She'll do just about anything that I do! Check out those natural highlights!

Look closely ... you can see her halo. Errrr ... the pretty artwork Ellen took it upon herself to add to the kitchen walls with a pen!

The cousins having a tea party. Minnie looks less than thrilled. "Sit der, Mimmie!"

Here's Ellen playing with Mère's "yeakum" aka makeup. She's got most of the right letters, just in their own order & pronunciation.

Smiles for Mère!

Minnie DYING for some attention. As the first grandchild (dog) she's had a hard time adjusting to Ellen taking over.

"Mimmie nekkless!"

Mom attempting to stop the tears at bedtime. We were telling Ellen that she was scary in her jammies!

Time to brush teeth. She refused until I pretend brushed my teeth first ;)

Minnie wishing she was allowed upstairs with the girls. Someday, Minnie ... someday!

Just another afternoon on the deck

Went over to play with Miss Ellen this afternoon ... and to get some photo help from Molly.

While we were waiting for Molly to finish working in the yard, Ells and I sat to have a little chat out on the deck. This is good stuff!

If this doesn't make you smile ...

... I don't know what will! :)

Spent the evening with Ellen ... and Minnie was MORE than thrilled to spend the night around her. You never know what kind of leftovers you can find on her chin or shirt sleeves :)

I know this picture is blurry, but it's a great representation of what happens when these two "cousins" get together.

"Mimmie! Get down!" *giggle, giggle*

Strutting her stuff

Stopped by to see Ellen tonight. She was funny, and shy, and playful, and sassy ... all in a span of 30 minutes. I took these pictures back to back. It looks like she's really strutting her stuff all over the front sidewalk! Although this girl IS sassy ... this is just what it looks like she you slow down her wobbly walking! :) Can you believe how long her hair is getting? I'm glad I got to see her in the middle of a busy weekend.

Mwah, Ells! Aunt Betsy loves you!

Too busy to post about the last few weeks, but I can do it quickly with pictures!

I started back to work (unofficially) in my classroom early in August. It takes a lot of time to get things unpacked, uncovered, and organized. I was happy to head back in with my new camera, to share my room with better photographs. Here is my new calendar set ... may not be exciting to most, but I was happy to have something fresh this year (even though it was a hand-me-down)!

Here is my new, FABULOUS, fabric banner that the author of one of my favorite blogs, Whatever, made for me. I found a picture of this banner on one of her blog posts & knew she was the creator. I left a comment & she emailed me later that night! After much encouragement on Megan's end that I could make one myself, I thought it would look better if I could pay her to make one for me. It arrived just in time for school to start! It was the perfect way to tie in my current, bright decorations. The kids really love it, too!

Here is poor Minnie after her day of shots with Dr. Jed. This year wasn't as bad as years past, thanks to antihistamines the day before, during and after her vaccinations. She sure was tired, though :(

The unbelievable sunflowers in Jill's garden! Look at how much taller it is than Mitzi. There were beautiful orangey pink ones, too!

I needed a change & asked for your advice. Molly sent me the link to this idea. I liked it, but had another idea instead.

Jill helped me one night to empty out the jars, clean the jars and then fill the jars with various glass pebbles. I LOVE the way they look now!

I finally got to put my Jayhawk license plate on my new car. I bought it the year that I got my VW Bug, and minutes after I bought it, I realized I didn't have a front plate. Now I can share my KU pride!

Enjoyed my last official day of summer at the pool. This summer, I was fascinated with the clouds and the reflection lines in the pool water. I didn't have my camera with me at the pool very often, but I did make sure to take some final pictures.

As a family, we went out for a "Going Back to School" dinner the night before my meetings started. I picked Los Cabos in Mission Farms because of their giant patio outside and because the weather had finally decided to cooperate a bit. This little one was begging for "moe sasa" (translation: more salsa) during the entire meal. She even liked the spicier ones that I couldn't handle :)

At the end of our meal, we saw three vans that held hot air balloons. We stuck around long enough to watch them inflate & take off. Quite the experience for Ellen!

Great night for picture-taking, too. I was sad I had just removed my new Canon from my purse and had to use my point & shoot for these pictures, but they still turned out.

This year at school, we voted on a Western/Cowboy theme. We've never had an all-school theme before, but it was really fun to see how everyone decorated. I just did a few things here & there, because I really like my regular decorations. Becky, down the hall from me, created this mural out of bulletin board paper & wrapping paper. SO FUN!

The first weekend after school started, some KC friends flew out to Columbus, Ohio to surprise Julie for an early 30th birthday party! We went straight to the party from the airport and she was BEYOND surprised!

The next day, Mike & Julie opened up their house to all the family and friends for a BBQ. My camera was passed around the table for everyone to play. Becca changed some settings for me, and took this great picture. I have a lot to learn!

Here's a picture of all the girls. Exactly a year ago, we were together for our 10 year reunion. Glad we got to celebrate together!

I hope to have more updates this year, but it's going to be a busy one. I'm going to be working towards my National Board Certification, which will mean about 300 hours of work (outside of my job) between now and March when my portfolio is due. If I become a hermit and have a hard time keeping in touch this year, now you'll know why. Writing here and continuing with my 365 photo blog have been easy ways for me to keep in touch with others, even though it's not face-to-face time. Keep checking back from time to time!

Girl without the Pearl Earring

Last week when I babysat Ellen, we had a little photo shoot. It was little, because she was a sicky and didn't want to play along with my games. The second I took this picture, I knew I liked it. I uploaded and forgot about it until Molly used it in her blog post today.

Looking at it a second time, I had a feeling about it. It looked like something I had seen before. Then, it came to me. This picture of Ellen reminded me of the famous Vermeer painting, Girl with the Pearl Earring. I thought I was crazy, until I commented about it and Molly said she thought the same thing.

What do you think?

A few new pictures

Pictures from a little visit last Saturday afternoon. It's always fun to play, read, explore, and laugh with this one.