This photo needs a caption!

I was taking pictures of my nephew yesterday and also some of the other kids that my sister babysits. I took this picture and it just makes me smile. I know there's a very funny caption that belongs with it but I can't come up with it. Or maybe a crop or words on the bricks. Anyone have any thoughts?

Spring sprouts!

I have been enjoying taking pictures of the perennials that are popping up at the new house. I thought I'd share some of what I've got. I don't know what everything is yet but it's still fun to watch. Now I probably need to start weeding!

Need to warm up - Hawaii memories

I have many things that I do in my life: wife of 14.5 years, mother of two, engineer, avid reader, photographer, scrapbooker to name the top jobs. As I sit in my new house, I am wanting to show more of those things on my blog.

No, I don't plan on starting to share stories of my husband and children. I am not completely comfortable with putting a lot of information on my kids out on the web and I'm not the gushy type so can't talk much about my great hubby.

I want to start incorporating more of my photography and scrapbooking into the blog. I am thinking this will inspire me to do more of both, which only will make me happier overall. The problem is I'm not quite sure how best to bring them in. So I'm just going to try some things over the next week or so and see how they go. If anyone has any ideas or wants me to talk about something specific, I'd love to hear them.

For today, I am feeling very cold. The sun is out but it's very cold outside. And it's been almost a year since hubby and I went to Hawaii for the first time (not that we've been back but we will be going back at some point). So I was looking through my pictures from our week there and want to share some of my favorites.

Sunset on our first night on the west side of the Big Island of Hawaii


This picture of the black sand beach just calms me


The best fun! I highly recommend ATVing to all! That's me in the top picture. We were on the island of Kauai - it's beautiful!

The Sunday Salon: Post Thanksgiving Edition

I am finally feeling a bit better! Hurray! I still have a lingering cough, mostly at night, but much better. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. My mom, my sister, her husband and two boys, my father-in-law and his wife were all here! We had a very yummy turkey dinner with all the good fixings. Well, except I didn't let my father-in-law make his oyster dressing. But I don't really consider that part of the 'good' fixings. We played lots of cards, played with the baby and his three-year-old brother, and ate lots. I even made chicken lasagna for dinner on Friday so we'd get a break from the turkey.

I did take pictures of my nephews. I will have to ask my sister first before I post them here. But they are worth waiting for! What cuties! While you are waiting, here's a picture my sister took of my girl and me.


I am eager to take pictures of my kids now. When I do, I'd better be sure to get a pic or two of me and my boy.

It was another slow reading week. Between being sick and having everyone here (and all the cleaning that goes along with that), I only finished one book: Blackbird, Farewell by Robert Greer. I have started Anita Shreve's latest, Testimony, but am having trouble moving past the opening scene. Kinda graphic and emotional. Hoping it gets...better isn't the right word, but easier to read. I posted my review of The Note by Angela Hunt.

I didn't get my next digital scrapbooking post finished so will work on getting that done this week. I also am working on a post about the believability of the action in books. Reading this week will be finishing Testimony then on to LOLAs next book - The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs.

My next post will be my 200th post on the blog!!! To celebrate, I will be having a book giveaway! Be sure to check back tomorrow for the details!

I'd love to hear about your week. Leave a comment and tell me what you are doing and what you are reading!

Digital Scrapbooking: Part 1 - The Paper Years

A few weeks ago, I mentioned in a Sunday Salon post that I had been doing some scrapbooking instead of reading. Aack! Is that even allowed? Anyway... On that post, Kathy (one of my favorite bloggers) asked me to tell more about digital scrapbooking. That sounded like lots of fun to me, so here I am!

As I started putting this post together, however, I found that it turned into a marathon post (who knew I had so much to say about scrapbooking?). So I am breaking my love of scrapbooking into multiple posts. Today's post is about my beginnings in paper scrapbooking.

I started scrapbooking almost 12 years ago when my girl was about 6 months old. I got started with Creative Memories, making scrapbook pages with cool papers, stickers, fun pens, etc. I loved all the paper colors with the pictures, especially the primary/bolder colors. Trying to find the right sticker to go with my pictures was an event unto itself sometimes. Or finding the right pictures to go with the cute stickers I just had to buy!

And the journaling! Colored pens. Fat pens. Letter stickers. All fun! I usually had quite a bit to say about my pictures. You know how when you are sharing pictures with someone, you want to tell them the things you can't tell from the picture or why the picture was even taken. That's what I tried to write on the pages. It's so fun to look back now and see my handwriting. I had such nice handwriting ten years ago. But the best is reading the little quirks, filling in the memories that the pictures bring to mind. The journaling is just as important to the page as the pictures! (Stepping down from the journaling soapbox now.)

Over the next 8 years or so, I made about 15 scrapbooks for my family. I have always taken ALOT of pictures of my family and our activities. Scrapbooking was a natural progression to document the things that I surely would forget (and definitely have!).

I was a Creative Memories consultant for five years and totally loved it. I loved helping ladies make their scrapbooks. Helping them to document the lives of their families. I was a consultant during 9/11 and it was my mission to make sure folks wrote in their scrapbooks about their thoughts and feelings before they changed over time.

I completely loved scrapbooking. It combined my love of my family with my love of photography, giving the gift of memories to my family. I have family albums, birthday albums for each child, and 'growing up' albums for each kid, starting with their baby books. Everyone in my family enjoys going through the memories!

Here's some thoughts I have for more on my scrapbooking series: my transition to digital photography and later, to digital scrapbooking, my scrapbooking style, different ways to scrapbook, what to include in any scrapbook. I'm excited to share!





Edited to add:
Part 2 - From Paper to Digital
Part 3 - What I do
Part 4 - Making a Page

Wordless Wednesday: Basketball concentration!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I turned 39 this morning. For the first time. LOL I am one of those people who are always excited about their birthday and don't hide it. (I am convinced everyone is excited but some just choose to hide it.) It's not about the gifts (although I don't turn those down), it's just because this is MY day. And I love it.

Probably should share some pictures from last night. I had an old lady and a zombie soccer player leave my house last night.





You can see more of them on my flickr account, including ones where they actually smile.

Oh, and in a shameless plea for comments, wanna wish me a happy birthday??? LOL

Welcome Fall!

Today, Monday September 22nd, is the first day of Fall. But it sure doesn't feel like it! The high will be about 85 degrees today, I could not fathom wearing long sleeves today - even a blouse, and the kids are still in shorts! But, the calendar says the cooler weather is coming and I am excited!

As fall is now here, lots of my friends - both blogging friends and rl friends - will be celebrating in their kitchens. Pumpkin bread, spice cookies, apple crisp, soups all will be made by these women. I wish I was one of them. I dream of my kitchen smelling all spice-y, bringing forth memories of crunching leaves, drinking warm cider around a bonfire, or cuddling next to a fireplace in warm sweaters. Alas, the best I can do is buy the cider and warm it in the microwave. Or wear the sweaters. Suzy Homemaker I am not.

So, how do I celebrate fall each year? With pictures of course! Since all my photo albums are boxed up (gasp!) for the house showings, I had to dig for pictures of previous falls. Of course the ones I really wanted are not here but these are some of the non-scrapbooked pictures. To the left, there's my girl, just one year old, our first fall photo shoot.



Next in our walk down memory lane via fall photos, we have my boy entering into the fun in the fall of 2000. He was not at all sure that day of the straw or the grass (the picture I really want to show you is of him in the grass and his rosy red excema cheeks - I'll have to dig it out next fall).









Jump ahead to the fall of 2002 - getting into some more candids because realizing a two-year old boy doesn't do posed unless his sister is squeezing him by the middle.


Now, fall of 2008, I know more about photography, more about scrapbooking, and more about the fact that this is how I celebrate fall. But I would love to come to your house and celebrate fall with your apple crisp and cider if you want to invite me.





Go to Polka Dot Cottage and see how other folks are celebrating stepping into fall. And be sure to comment and tell me how you are celebrating!

Outtakes!

I rousted the kids and tried to get some fall pictures like I promised! I will share some more but here are a few of the outtakes.

Summer Fun Photo Contest

The fun ladies at 5 Minutes for Mom are a must read every day. They are hosting a Summer Fun photo contest that ends tomorrow. I've been debating for days what photo to enter - cause you know I have to enter!
Their words about the photo to choose: The theme for the contest is Summer Fun - which leaves it wide open for your creativity. Your photos can be of kids, adults, animals… anything that represents summer fun to you! Just keep the shots family friendly please.

Leaving it wide open is always difficult for me! I need structure and organization, people! Anyway...

I decided that to me, summer fun means the kids and I having fun with our family, doing things that we might not otherwise do throughout the year. With that in mind, I went back through my pictures from June through now. I wanted a photo that included both kids. I wanted one that photographically was decent (doesn't need to be great but has to not make me cringe) and this was tricky as my SLR was at the doctor most of July (it's back now - yippee!!!). I wanted a picture of something that would only happen in the summer. And I wanted it to make me smile with the memory.

Here is what I chose: We were at my in-law's house. It's raining and they are out playing in it, riding their cousin's little tricycle. Think they were having fun? This picture makes me smile - I hope it looks like summer fun to you!

Fireworks

Happy Fourth of July! We got to see some fireworks last night and I tried to capture some on the camera. Here's a few to share. Enjoy your weekend!

Those digital pictures on those digital cameras

I love my digital cameras. There are two that we use regularly - my Canon 30D SLR that I absolutely love but generally have heart palpitations when someone other than me is using it. We also have a Sony Powershot that takes great pictures and allows the rest of my family to take pictures. I take a gazillion pictures, have many, many hand-made scrapbooks, have 3 digital scrapbooks, photos all over my house and my relatives....yada yada yada. Digital allows you to take so many and delete the ones that are bad, not worrying about wasting film or time. All this to say - I like digital pictures.

What kills (meaning hurt not laugh) me is when folks keep their pictures on their cameras for a long time. I know folks (family and friends alike) who will keep hundreds of pictures on their camera, deleting one or two at a time to make room for more. This is SO BAD for so many reasons. There are many things that can happen to the camera or the card that will wipe out all the pictures. For example - dropping it into the toilet; getting a virus from the computer; card just going bad; some ding-dong helpful person deleting ALL the pictures rather than just one or two to make space; and many other things that can happen. Do you really want the pictures from the past 6 months (which include Christmas, last day of school, fun events, new babies, family, etc) to be gone forever? Of course not. So, get them off your camera. You can put them on the computer (but remember this can also be an issue so make sure this isn't the only thing you do); print them either as individual photos or in a scrapbook format; put them on cd's; etc.

Whatever you choose to do with your pictures - make sure you share them! Pictures are not taken to be put in a computer, cd, album or scrapbook never to be seen again. Share them! People always like looking at photos!