Totally Random Facts about Me.

photo credit: the firstborn Dude

I was "tagged" by the lovely Leslie to share some randomness about myself.

1. I enjoy playing cards. But I'm a sore loser. So my husband doesn't like to play with me. :-(

2. If there were a cute labrador puppy and an adorable baby in the same room ... 9 times out of 10 I would go to the puppy.

3. I don't do manicures, pedicures, make-up or Botox. In photography terms, I like to think I'm the sooc (straight out of the camera) version of myself.

4. I take my showers at night. For whatever reason, I have to have clean feet when I crawl into bed.

5. I could eat pizza every day. For ever. Amen.

6. I don't think I could live in a house without bookshelves. It would never feel like home.

7. I love to waterski. Especially on a hot day in Arizona on the Colorado River. Between the Parker Dam and Buckskin. When it's not windy. And the water is like glass. But, I'm not particular, or anything.

The Evolution of a Picture

I submit in all humility this post ... for your amusement. Remember this photo from a couple weeks back? It was part of my Blue series. I love the way it came out. And now I'll show you where this photo came from....

First, the final product...


Before it was final, it lacked a border and text (which were added in Flickr's editing section - I know I should be able to do this in PS Elements, but I've not yet figured that program out).


Before that I needed to sharpen the eye a bit and brighten the "catch lights" (which I attempted in Elements) and I also decided to saturate the greens & blues a bit and increase the "black" (in Lightroom). Un(?)technical jargon aside, I just messed with a bunch of sliders til it looked nice to me.

Alrighty, let's back it up a step more. The final photo comes from a VERY CROPPED image. I originally pictured in my mind that I would compose a close-up of the Firstborn Dude's beautiful greeny-bluey eyeS. Here's what the crop looked like when I included both eyes.

Ewwww. Definitely NOT what I was hoping for (thus the one eye crop!!). And it gives you just a tiny hint as to the nature of the full original image. Are you ready for that?!?


I warn you, it might not be pretty...


Wait for it....


And I should tell you that my Dude was trying soooo hard to help me get just the perfect eye picture. He was soooo cooperative. But it was a little bright outside, and tho we were in the shade, it was just so hard not to squint. And his attempts not to squint while still trying to keep his eyes wide open produced this...

"A room without books is like a body without a soul." Cicero

Seek and Find...

One headless dog.
One upset little boy. Because his big brother was singing.
Blog post being edited.
Lovely new "book" shelves that I filled instead with photos.
One frame yet to be filled.
One missing desk chair (cause I'm standing on it to take picture).
Two napkins left over from my last snacks.
Bills to pay. Books to read.
Tripod, waiting patiently for another walk.
One dog toy - to discourage dog from chewing on Legos and books.
Cold Stone Creamery coupon on "end table."
One Ikea clock that always says 10:10. No battery. Too lazy.
And Waldo. Nah, just kidding. But I bet there's a little Lego guy and his weapons stuffed somewhere between the couch cushions.

Rainy Days and Sundays ...

in our backyard today...





Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Leviticus 26:4

And more daisies ...

The Daisy family—Compositae, sometimes called Asteraceae—is the largest in the plant kingdom, comprising more than 20,000 species. Writer William Sutherland penned in 1871 that daisies and composites are “a horde of barbarians which no sane gardener would admit within the boundaries.”

I admit that I have none of these "barbarians" in my own yard because the Big Dude prefers our yard to have a "desert scape" flare. And tho I've plopped numerous palms thru-out the yard (hey, even deserts have oases, right?!?), flower beds really don't appeal to the hubbie's desert ideals (not to mention that they would probably quickly grow over and obscure from view his beloved boulders!!). So I'm content to walk a distance to appreciate these beauties. Yikes, that was pretty wordy for me, wasn't it?

Here's where my tripod and I went:

Hat tip to my Mom for alerting me to the presence of this beautiful bed of daisies that exists a little ways down a trail behind her home.

My tripod & I went for a walk...

Wanna know where we went??? Tune in tomorrow...

Just one of the beni's of homeschooling...

... on a beautiful day, if you want, you can take your literature discussion to the beach.






Oh! Look who decided to visit our classroom?
I guess he was enjoying our commentary about some of the overlapping elements and themes of The Ugly Duckling and The Trumpet of the Swan. ;-)

Recess...


We bid adieu (or should I say "Vale!" ?) to our friend...


Can I just say how much I love living here?!??

I know I've said it before...

I love watching the weather from my window.


"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard." -from Psalm 19

"When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers,
The moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained;
What is man, that Thou dost take thought of him?
And the son of man, that Thou dost care for him?
Yet Thou hast made him a little lower than God,
And dost crown him with glory and majesty." - from Psalm 8

Ready. Set. Swing.

There's a lotta Blogosphere Love going around this week...

Two lovely ladies with lovely blogs gave me awards this week. I'm both tickled and humbled by their kind words. Tina and Lee, I thank you for thinking of me. You've both blessed me :-)

Tina at Jetihoja Academy gave me the following award:
This award comes with a few rules. Here they are:

Rules:
1. Awarded parties must nominate five people who have not received the award.
2. The blogs that receive the award must serve some purpose.
3. In their post about the award they need to link back to this entry.
4. Awarded parties must post the award banner on their site. The banner must remain linked to this site.

And Lee at My 5 Wolf Cubs gave me this award:
This award doesn't come with any rules, so I'm going to add it to the above award and pass the love on to some of my favorite people. Note to my favorite bloggers: I must admit that awards with "musts" and "have tos" and "rules" kinda bring out the rebel in me. So I'm hereby letting you know that you can post or not post the following awards and that you can pass on the love ... or not. My feelings won't be hurt (I totally know that these award things can kinda be like chain letters of yesteryear). I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate you and your blogs - that you inspire me, speak words of wisdom to me, make me laugh, make me think ... Oh yeah, and I'm ignoring the number 5 and that rule about only awarding those who haven't already been awarded...

KathyJo at Barefoot Meandering
Leslie at My Happily Ever After
Donna (aka MizBooshay) at Quiet Life
Katherine at K's Cafe: The 30 Second Blog
Patricia at Classical Ed Our Way
Nancy at Life is Like a Lunchbox
Lisa at Koinonia Academy

And since I'm breaking the rules, anyway, I would give the award right back to Tina and Lee, both of whom I find to be purposeful and excellent!!

And now I'm officially going back to being Short On Words. Happy Saturday, All!

Rock Wall Shenanigans

Preparing to Climb

Friday nights is usually all about going to the Rock Wall at the YMCA.

The firstborn Dude is a whiz with the rope knots.

Happy Valentine's Day

And then they wore those bright shiny new Vans to play in the sand & surf...

The Big Dude took the Little Dudes to the outlet shops for new shoes...

and came away with four pairs of Vans for $60. He "saved so much." Wonder where he heard that phrase before?!?

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Yummmm. Wishing some of these were left...

The Boys...

A perfect afternoon to hang out...

"The better part of one's life consists of his [her] friendships."
- Abraham Lincoln

photo credit to the Firstborn Dude!

Leslie is a fantastic mommy. Can't you just tell?

What a delightful change of pace to have the privilege of taking the picture of a G.I.R.L. Isn't she just too cute in all her pink?!?

Another edit of the same photograph. It's mind-boggling how many different flavors you can now give a photo with just the click of a button.

I almost skipped Orange...

I don't know why. I like orange. I even have an orange wall in my house - right by my desk, as a matter of fact. My favorite gum is orange. The boys' favorite snacks (Goldfish and Cheese-its) are orange. Poppies and sunsets (two of my favorite things) are orange. And then I saw Leslie's orange pictures. And I knew I couldn't skip orange.












And to top it all off, we went to the Natural History Museum this week with friends and there we found this very large, very orange exhibit. Cool.

G R E E N

Thus commences a week of *COLOR*...

I never fail to be inspired by my friend Leslie. Her latest project looked like so much fun, I had to jump on the bandwagon.