Wednesday Randomness

There isn't a lot to post about today. The satellite guy is coming to fix the receivers. The house is decorated for Christmas. Things are quiet around here today. And I can't find my cellphone. So if any of you reading this who knows the number would give me a quick call to make it ring, I would appreciate it greatly... LOL

I was down on the square a couple of days ago and I loved the contrast of Todd's yellow shirt on this red wall. Then I moved him over by the wooden door, and I do believe I have found another favorite portrait spot!



This antique desk was outside my favorite antique store, and it cracked me up when Todd sat down and did this. Honestly, this is how I picture him in school. "What do you mean I have to keep my shoes on? Why can't I make loud farting noises anytime I want to?"




I need to take some pictures, but I have been making some Psalms 23 bracelets to sell. I will get some shots uploaded later tonight, and if anyone would like one feel free to email me. have a great day!

Scavenger Hunt photos

There is a scavenger hunt challenge on the photography board at Two Peas that I am having a really good time participating in. I have been reading tutorials and trying to get better at really using some of the photo editing tools that are in my Photoshop Elements program, so I figured now was as good a time as any to start playing with them.



Here is the list of all 26 items on the scavenger hunt. I will post my others as I get done taking and editing them. If you join in and play along, let me know so I can go see what the challenges inspire you to see through your lens!
1. glee 2. village 3. reality 4. accident 5. anxiety 6. low 7. copy 8. kindness 9. bad taste 10. stairwell 11. public transport 12. art 13. shoes 14. Friday 15. alley 16. 7pm 17. telephone 18. ant's eye view 19. words 20. odd 21. a stop sign 22. traditional 23. the sea 24. stripes 25. tangled 26. a night shot


Here the pictures I have taken so far.

challenge #1-Glee- I shot the puppies running to greet us when we got home from school today. I had the wrong f-stop on, but that was a happy accident because I really like how the blurriness in front shows their personalities. The three in front are always wiggly and jumping over each other to get to us, and Sammy is always hanging back and waiting patiently for his turn.




challenge #3 - reality - It doesn't matter how many times I tell them not to, everytime I get a picture framed of one kid, one of the others has to jump in and make some weird face. I didn't stage this shot at all.




challenge #5 -anxiety- Trying to find a peds oncologist for Chet hasn't been easy. There aren't a lot of options, and trying to track down specialists in a tiny community has proven to be a stressful challenge. I know that shadows in photography are generally frowned upon, but I left the one on the phonebook because it sort of symbolic of what it is like to have a serious illness affect one of your kids.




challenge #6 -low- Jack was hauling debris off our property yesterday, and his truck got stuck in some deep mud.




challenge #11 -public transport- I really was hoping they would have their stop signs out for the stop sign assignment instead, but since this really is the only public transport we have in our tiny town (these are all the buses for all the grade levels) I went with it... LOL




challenge #13 -shoes- These are my favorite pair of casual shoes to wear. I used a filter on the picture, but I didn't pay attention to which one.




challenge #19 -words- I love quotes, and almost all the churches around here have messages and quotes posted on their signs.

TFL!

Soul friends

I swear...Kara and I were seperated at birth... years apart... LOL

Here is a photo I took of Beth playing with Faith's hat.


Click here to see why it is so funny!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I started dinner last night and finished all the prep work, so today is just a quiet relaxing day at home. This is the first time we have never had a bunch of people for turkey day! I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday!

I have been waiting for a good day to take Kyle to Alpena to take pictures, so we went this morning. There is an Indian Motorcycle building there that I knew he would love seeing. I love finding new places around here for pictures, and it has been fun playing with different shots on different walls or backgrounds. Alpena was great. It was originally built in the late 1800's, so the architecture and old wood just really appeals to me.


There were a couple of funny things this morning as we were taking pictures. A couple of big huge dogs came over to say hi and then followed us all around the buildings. They wouldn't sit still long enough for their photos to be taken. Then I found a barn that had a great siding on it, so we headed over there to get some shots and this cat attacked us... LOL. She probably had kittens in there somewhere, but anytime Kyle went towards the wall she started chasing him and hissing, then sitting and growling at us. We left psycho cat alone and found other walls to use.

The whole Indian Cycles building has this border around it.

The other fun thing this morning was that while we took our shots this man came out to watch us. He was smiling and laughing at Kyle and seemed to really enjoy seeing us explore he buildings for photo spots. We waved good-bye when it was time to leave. (He is standing on his porch behind Kyle in this )


I took a couple of hundred pics, and shots like this are why I take so many. I was trying to get some of the architecural elements in the shot, and I wasn' paying attention to how the two windows end up looking like really large square ears on Kyle... LOL

Here are some other shots. I need to play more with them to really fix them up, and I want to convert some to black and white. What a fun way to spend the morning! I am on the lookout for more spots to have shoots with the other kids.






















Just a quick shot I grabbed of Kyle and I when we were done. He may look like his dad in every other way, but I do declare that boy has my eyes!

Faith's Big Day

Anybody who has talked to Faith in the last couple of days knows that today is her birthday! My sweet girl is turning nine, and is more excited than she ever has been. Happy birthday, Baby!! Love you to pieces!!

Boys Gone Wild

Crazy teenage boys. They are good kids. They are just crazy.



And they are teaching my little boys to be crazy too.



And when you think of little boys and puppies, isn't this what you think of? I love this shot... LOL


I have always wanted to bury the kids in leaves and take their photos. I was never able to in Vegas. Our yard is covered with the last of the trees' leaves, so I buried Kyle in them the other night. He and I had so much fun!


Last night Beth was in a cuddly mood. I love cuddling with her! Such a contrast to those crazy boys!!

A couple of updates

As promised, here are the pictures of Jack's new work truck. He wouldn't smile for me since we were still in the parking lot. Before I drove this truck, I thought I wanted a small pick-up for myself when we are done paying it off. However, now that I have driven it, I want one at least as big as this one. I have so much fun driving it when I can!! I always thought I was a sportscar kind of gal at heart... not anymore! I want a huge truck with a big diesel engine... LOL



Beth and Todd were the first ones to get to ride along in the truck. They didn't mind smiling for me... :0) Now when we go anywhere, everybody clamors over who gets to ride with Dad in his new truck. Just wait till I get my own! (I still plan on painting it pink!)


(I fixed Todd's belt after I took this.)

Here is the layout I made for the sketch on the Deluxe blog. I used a larger photo template, and rotated it to work with my photos. This was a miniature NYC Matt made the other day when he found a bunch of foam in my garbage pile in the scrap room. (I had just trimmed all the excess foam off a bunch of stamps I picked up at the last show.) You should see it in real life... he did such a good job on it with all the little details that the camera really didn't catch!


Jack's new job seems to be going well. He is putting in long days once you add on his commute time, but at least the kids get to see him every night before they go to bed. Today he pulled my Christmas decorations out for me, so we are going to get the house decked out for the season after turkey dinner on Thursday.

I sat down today and copied all the photos I had on my computer to disk. Holy cow. It took all day. I had a year's worth of pics on here, and I take thousands of pics a month. No wonder my computer was running so slow! Now I am going to be making a point of making sure I get everything transferred over at least once a month.

I did get some more scrapping work done this week, but I just can't post it yet. I will when the features are released. I am almost done with a couple of other pages I just felt inspired to work on. I will try to get them done tomorrow. Might have to wait till the kids are back in school on Monday.

In the meantime, I have been job hunting for the winter. We will see what happens.

I am so homesick this week it isn't even funny. I don't want to move back to Vegas, but I have got to get back for a weekend soon to see my brother and parents.

Have you heard this song? I love it. I am working on putting togeher a new playlist full of upbeat, dancable songs. I love the last one I made, but I didn' realize how many slow and sad songs I had picked until I listened to it a few times in a row... LOL!

Blogger cut off my post the other day. Here is the new Chris Daughtry song if you haven't heard it. I love his voice! (And he covered Bon Jovi's Wanted Dead or Alive on this album... be still my heart!) His album is being released on Tuesday, which coincidentally is Faith's birthday. I am positive she would want this CD... LOL... Click here to listen.

I'll be back soon. Have a nice week!

Good morning!

It has been a long week. I have had several kids with the croup, and they are all taking turns with it, so there have been some long nights. Then, because they are such nice kids, they are trying to share it with me. Today Chet was coughing, so I am sure tonight will be his turn to try to sleep through the barking cough. That is all the whining I am going to do about it, though.

Chet's leg isn't hurting him, but now it shakes. His doctor's office is 6 hours away, so I am checking to see if there is a Children't Hospital in Springfield I can take him to to get counts done and make sure everything is still good. He looks good, though, (isn't pale or lethargic) and that is a good sign. I will post more when I know for sure. (Big Chet... I don't have your email address! Will you send it to me when you get a chance?)

Mom was here all weekend, and we got to spend more time visiting this time. It was heartbreaking to see her leave to go home again. ((Mom)) I love you.

There has been good news this week, too. Jack has been hired full time out here in our neck of the woods... finally!!! Wooooooohoooooooo! He got home last night, and it is a huge relief to know he is here to stay this time! We went and bought a truck for him that we are picking up tomorrow, so check back for those pictures. Today we have to go get him some thermals and warm socks to wear while he is outside. It is getting chilly out there!

I have a huge pile of work to get done in the next couple of days. I also have a page for the sketch on the Deluxe blog, and a color page for the color blog I want to get posted. I will try to get those up tonight.

Mom bought the kids a Clue game, so I played a couple of rounds with the younger kids the other night. They had a ton of fun, and I enjoyed it although I was tired! It is kind of funny to play a game you haven't played since you were a kid! Todd decided he didn't want to be one of the suspects, he wanted to be the murdered person, John Boddy. So everytime somebody made a guess about the who, where, and with what, he laid down dead.



I need to go now, but here are a couple of pics I took of Beth the other day in case you need a dose of cuteness in your life today!

Fun Stuff

I just wanted to share this drawing Matt made of me. I find it funny that he bisected my lips, but I always love to see what he draws.

Chris Daughtry's new song is out, and I cannot wait to get the whole CD. Click

Color Blog Challenge

There is a new challenge up on the color blog to use a neutral background with colors added. I decided to make the second part of the framed family set I started a couple of weeks ago. (click here and scroll down to "Nice Weekend" to see the first one)This was the free 8x10 we got from that portrait sitting that I did not like. I am using it, though, since it matches the pics I took that day o use on the other framed piece.

This is the layout part. This time I scanned it before I added it to the frame. There are photo corners on the bottom too. The background is 7Gypsies ledger paper from the set that I used on the other piece. used some 7G rubons, BG rubons, MAMBI number stickers, 7G stickers, and phototurns. TFL.


Here is the set of frames hanging on the wall. Sorry about the bad lighting... I couldn't really avoid it today.

aargh

I jsut had a long post typed up and Blogger ate it. I will see if I can post pics later.

Matt and I got home safe and sound last night. He had a great time visiting his California family, and we had a good show in Sacramento. I spent most of my time working, but I did get to go ice skating on Friday, and that was fun! I have never been, so I was quite wobbly on my skates! I only fell once, though, and was feeling pretty confident by the time the rink closed!

Matt had fun visiting with his family there, and when he came back on Saturday we went to dinner and the bookstore together. We were both so exhausted that we slept on both of our flights home!

Chet has a sore rib and a sore leg, so I probably need to get him to the doctor this week to see why. Crossing my fingers it isn't anything serious.

There is supposed to be a new City Planner feature up on ScrapVillage today. We used Canvas Concepts products this week.

I'll be back later!