March 9 – 16, 2010

I like this photo of nothingness. It’s pretty…and will make a good photo overlay for taking an ordinary photo and over processing it (which seems to be a current trend that I’m not exactly all that hip with…as in, I don’t really prefer the over processed look). Maybe it will come in handy on Kortni’s wedding photos.

March 10th.

Camden. At his very best. Groaning…Moooooom! Stop, don’t take my picture. Stop taking video…and since 1 minute 29 seconds of video is almost 500mb, sure. I’ll stop.

March 11th. Camden turned 14. We had a surprise party for him at Gino’s – he thought he was going to El Sombrero for shrimp soup with his grandpa…Awesome party, great turnout. We found a new fun party game for teen boys - “Tattoo the birthday guest of honor,” – not as bad as it sounds folks, we simply put a plain white t-shirt on him and gave the guests a pile of colored permanent markers – there were prizes for the best tattoo :) Abby and Ruby decked him out in Irish/Green garb since St. Patrick’s Day is approaching and the leprechaun beard was pretty funny!!

Friday, March 12th – I didn’t take this photo, I was driving. Camden took the photo while I was driving us all to Lincoln City where we were staying with the Wrights for the weekend so he could swim the Newport meet on Saturday & Sunday.

Saturday, after the really LOOOONNNNG day in Newport at the meet (Camden had to be there at 9 but didn’t swim until after 1 and they were WAY behind schedule and didn’t seem to care…) we went back to Lincoln City and hit the beach hoping a float fairy would leave us a beautiful glass ball on the beach…but no. We just froze. It was super cold! Pretty though, different waves on their beach than we get on ours, they get lots of big rolling waves, we have a lot of rocks just off shore that tame ours down a bit most of the time as they are coming in.

March 14th – waiting around for the next heat. Camden and Noah, everyone else is cropped out :D Cam was easy to spot, being the only bright yellow shirt hanging out – most of the collegiate fans at this meet were BEAVERS not Ducks.

 

 

 

Fashionista. AKA Abby. March 15th.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scans of directions that came with plastic toy (real) camera we bought today – it’s pretty close to a *pinhole* camera in that it’s lens is plastic & super tiny. It claims to be f/11 with a shutter speed of 1/125. This should be interesting since I just loaded it with a roll of 100 ISO slide film to cross process. Enlarge those directions and read them for a good laugh. Today is March 16th. Camera was purchased inside of a $4.99 cheesy easter basket at Grocery Outlet…it also had stickers, a really lame dry erase board that is useless because the tape that holds it down in the basket removes the dry erase surface with it upon removal, a box of mini stickers, a little tied together photo album that’s really just a few sheets of white paper between to cardboard covers in an obscure size…but all we wanted was the *toy camera* so we didn’t have to buy one on ebay for $6 and then pay another $6 to have it shipped to us…make sense?

March 6th. For real…

That’s it. The ONLY digital photo I took today. I have searched all over for those lollipops and finally found them in Charleston – and paid a ridiculous $4.29 or something like that for it…BUT picture it in photos (in Camden’s mental photo, he saw sticky colored faces and SAND all over the lollipop and the sticky face and wasn’t thinking this was such a good plan).
We shot 3 rolls of 35mm film today. Well, three rolls worth of shots across 4 cameras. We only got to change out one roll that was at the end and one is almost at the end. The changed out roll was 200 ISO recently purchased the almost done one happens to be 400 ISO that expired in 2003 – I am really excited about THAT film…but that story and sickness is for Drink More Tea :D

19th – 22th of February 2010

And here sleeps the hand that feeds us, exhausted, and still a little twitchy, but sleeping. Kurt actually hates it when I take his picture…while he’s sleeping, but to me, capturing his hand was significant. It’s a part of who he is and what he does. Calluses, carbon stains, burns, scabs & scars, strong hands made beautiful by the sacrifice of their own comfort so that others will not have to work so hard to eat, sleep, play and learn. This was actually late on the 18th.

It does count as brunch, even when served between 1 & 2 PM. Sunny Friday triggers allergy symptoms…countered by self pampering with sleeping in and having pancakes and coffee for a late lunch/brunch.

By computer screen light. Not exactly romantic, but it is cool :D




My Zipporah on the 21st at Sunset Beach! Isn’t she cool??







Camden. Whining at Mr. Hinkel’s today. February 22nd.

9th February – 18th - 2010

Look, I don’t even feel all guilt ridden about being BEHIND (again, some more, as usual). I will do my best to try to remember what’s been going on :)
Cam got a little lecture from the pediatric nurse practitioner on how not taking his allergy medication could have an adverse effect on his behavior, it could cause him to lose sleep and be unable to pay attention…and he could even have trouble in school. Go figure. His ear infection is gone though…and he said he’d try to be more responsible about taking his allergy meds and staying away from things he shouldn’t be around (anything fragrant basically…and tons of foods he likes).

Wednesday we hit Mr. Hinkel’s room (again). We had stopped in Tuesday to check on Cam’s newly formatted old computer – and he was reading to celebrate…okay, so really he was reading because he figured out that if he DOES SOME WORK he gets to use the computer that now connects to the internet…which means he can watch Stargate…
I cannot for the life of me remember Thursday, February 11th. I wish I could…it’s that brain damage again.

12.Feb.2010
Now, I still haven’t figured out WHY they set Camden’s computer up UNDER the desk, but there you have it, it’s under the desk instead of on it, usually they also have a pile of pillows and a blanket there…more comfy to feed the Webkinz that way.

Very late when I finally got home from Gino’s, but I still wanted to frost our Valentine cake for tomorrow anyhow…but the kids had eaten the frosting AND the bag of butterscotch chips. REALLY?? SO…I dumped some brown sugar into a pan with a chunk of butter, added sweetened condensed milk and stirred for half and hour to make caramel sauce to dump on Devil’s Food Cake – and it was YUMMY.

Folks, this is my Valentine, brought him to church with me ;o) I kind of like that streak of light :)






Sushi. Now before you go all queasy like – hear me out. THERE’S NO FISH IN THERE (well, maybe in the seaweed, like essence of fish or something) – it’s just RICE, seasoned rice vinegar and green onion wrapped up in nori (seaweed). I was too lazy to even mix up some wasabi! AND IT IS YUMMY!! Now we’re out of rice vinegar and Abby is really irritated with me. 02.15.2010

I had to take the car to Ford and have my oil changed (okay, 2,500 miles ago, but today I finally made it – on Feb. 16th). I was looking through a WIRED magazine and decided I should subscribe – there were lots of cool ads in it. I think I need one of these flashlights. It comes in chartreuse.



FEBRUARY 17th, 2010… the day that changed history. Okay, not really, because it really got here on the 16th and I took the photo of it after midnight…but it is the night (early morning?)(cuz that’s when the battery was fully charged)  my EOS 7D arrived…and UPS tried to deliver it to my NEIGHBOR’s house at 9AM and she wasn’t home so they didn’t leave it because it needed a signature and when I tried to track the truck down I discovered UPS customer center has an unlisted number so I had to drive there and get the number and was told my driver would be in around 6PM!! So, I wait. ALL DAY. And at 6:30, my truck still wasn’t in. I finally got my 7D at 8PM. That’s right, night time. Oh well, it’s a sweet new body :D Someday I will have a lens worthy of it, for now, it’s wearing my super beat up cheap 70-300mm telephoto – and I’m okay with that :D

Lobster Bisque. Since I had the evening off and this is what Sandy & I were going to do tomorrow…we did it tonight instead. Thursday night lobster bisque instead of Friday night and it was YUMMY!! (how could anything with a cup of melted butter, 6 cups of half and half and lobster be bad?) I only took about 10 photos of it – playing with the cool white balance adjustment on the 7D – you can set white balance using the color temp. adjustment!!! So much cooler than trying to choose between icons depicting lighting situations that usually aren’t all that accurate.
That soup might have been…unhealthy…just a teensy bit :) But it was after we went to the beach and the fog rolled in and we were freezing to death :D

January 26 - 31, 2010 - I think I like clumping my days together ;)

So I played around a bit with some of the frames on my cell phone camera...it would be a lot more fun if it would let you use them at a printable resolution, but no, they are micro. like...176x144. not even postage stamp printable. Sigh. It still works great to send photos of silly things to Mindy for color inspiration :) And the Bossa Nova mangosteen blend was YUMMY!! That was Tuesday, January 26th of 2010.

Wednesday evening at church we had a mock Bible Quiz so the quizzers could show the rest of the church what they are doing in "Bible Quizzing." These kids are AMAZING!! Niki & Alaina both "quizzed out," during their teams' turns, quizzing out means they answered their limit of questions correctly and didn't get to answer anymore to make it fair so the other kids would get a chance to answer.

Thursday, I worked a little at Gino's & Sandy took the girls with her to the beach. They were taking Uncle Alan who came down from the big city to visit. It was COLD when I got there, and the girls were all soaked...and Kayla still didn't want to leave :( Abby and Ruby couldn't wait to leave and I had a laugh about how we always get tsunami warnings and when we get the *tsunami* it's like 1 to 3 feet high, however when we get a *high surf* advisory, we get giant (10, 20, even higher) foot waves - one right after another, not one big wave, hundreds of BIG waves - and they usually destroy parts of Sunset Beach as shown here. Apparently, some people chose not to heed the warning and went to beaches and lookouts anyhow, and some of those were actually knocked down by the giant waves, from the observatory at Shore Acres where you would normally think you were relatively safe from the high surf, and had injuries substantial enough to seek medical treatment. CRAZY!! Ten years ago, I might have ignored the warnings too, but one day, driving out to Shore Acres, I realized just how easily the entire road could be washed out in the low spots...leaving one who happened to be beyond that point STUCK until someone figured out how to get them back.

I finally got around to scanning all of my goodies from my trip to Oahu. This was one of my favorite postcards and I wanted to put it into my scrapbook...so it had to be scanned :D I like the old style and the soft colors and the rounded colors :)

Saturday, I saw this cool sign at Ross...not cool necessarily because it's a nice sign...but the idea is cool. Photo of something average like grass with a keyword. I like it :)

I also found this photo of our poor cat on Abby's memory card from Saturday. Poor Cat. I'm telling you, the faster she runs, the better off she ends up being. She really enjoys being outside most of the time...no one can get to her and mess with her program out there. She can run about, wander, hunt, come and go at will and not be bothered with constant mauling.



We had 2 baptisms this morning at church, Zion being one of them - new and exciting things are going to happen in Zion's life - and I am SOOOO happy and excited for him!! What an awesome family God has blessed him with :D What an awesome way to end January :)

Friday, January 15, 2010

Alrighty folks, there is a COSCO on Oahu. We couldn't stop to eat at the many, many little authentic *mom & pop* type trailers of authentic, local food, it scared Kadi, they probably aren't safe...(right. like they could get much worse than my own kitchen at home). So we had lunch at COSCO folks. Same food they sell at every Cosco I have ever been to. Comforting...yet somehow just not...well...exotic enough for vacay lunch.

We bought some mini cheesecakes and other foods Phil liked to snack on once inside and we planned his "reenlistment party" for the evening, with Apples to Apples of course.




We SAW these mochi and sent the photo to Dad and did not buy any. Dad would have bought at least one box, probaby 2. He loves mochi.

Then Kadi dropped Kortni & I off at Hanauma Bay so we could snorkel. We bought new bathing suits at Cosco (they are under our clothes, you didn't want us to frighten children off of the beach did you?) Most of our photos here are with reusable, 35mm, underwater cameras and I haven't scanned any of my prints yet. We'll get around to that eventually. We saw mahi mahi, and schools of convict something fish (black and white striped) and urchins and coral and we had a FANTASTIC time - got back to the beach to find that Kadi had been calling and texting repeatedly...as if we were going to hang out on the beach next to our phones at Hanauma? ARE YOU CRAZY?? Phil was scheduled to pick us up at 4:30ish... We didn't have time to go back in, but we had been in the water over 2 hours :D This is a MUST DO event if you are on Oahu, even if you have to rent gear. It's SO worth it (even if the locals think it's cold this time of year).

Then we have Mike. Apparently the ONLY photo I took at the *party,* during the evening time. We had yummy mini cheesecakes and eventually got around to the Apples to Apples. Phil won...I think. I know I didn't win :( Eh, whatever :D

January 14, 2010 - Phil's Reenlistment, Bowling...stuff

Sgt. Spatz reenlisted in the Marines. Beautiful day, rather short ceremony. Kadi got a certificate for being a wonderful and supportive wife.

After Phil's reenlistment ceremony, we went to lunch at Pinky's because he got the rest of the day off. Then some shopping on base, grocery type shopping. Then a quick stop at a beach I remember from my last trip, because of the "Chinaman's hat" sticking up from the water (even found a book about this beach, which is why I know they call it Chinaman's Hat).  There happened to be para-sailors there too. Two that were having trouble lifting off and one flying around. AND I found a coconut...that someone's dog apparently tried to cart off while I was down at the rest area, Kadi & Kortni didn't let the dog have it lol.

We went bowling on base Thursday night, and finished the evening at home playing Apples to Apples (oh wait, there was a brief stop at Kailua Palace to karaoke).

Lookie What I can do...January 12 & 13 in ONE post

We hit Windward Mall. I found a junk store...aka, the kind with inexpensive Asian foods that I love, and I found Korean Style Nori on sale for $0.95/3pk - tasty. YES, I bought one that I am not opening for RUBY! I also found gen mai cha for $8/lb, but didn't buy any because I just bought 2# back home. We did the crazy photo booth thing, and it's REALLY small in there. Then it was off to Spencer's to buy stuff for Kortni's bachelorette party. The front of Spencer's is full of  cool socks, tights, hats, bags...the back of Spencer's was moderatlely frightening. 
Bad photo, but it's a Kermit stocking cap folks, yes, they sell stocking caps on island. Crazy isn't it? I am not sure why they do this, but I saw them all over.




I found a photo of myself marking the ladies room at Windward, and a Hello Kitty store (yes, I thought of Patricia, NO, I did not buy the very expensive, I LOVE NERDS bag, even though it was so totally cute!! The party store had the most disturbing poster I have seen in quite a while hanging in the window. Yes, they put purplish hair on that child and made her look...like a freakish leprechaun - eerie. Sorry folks, that's just a bit too much, she looks FIVE...just not cool.

After the mall, off to Chinatown. I like Chinatown, it doesn't scare me. Marines are not supposed to visit Chinatown because of the crime related to it, but we were on a mission. We needed mangosteen and to eat something at Pho 97 where Randy & Loan said we should have noodles. We didn't have time for noodles as we were on a schedule, but we did grab some spring roll type things that I like, one veggie, one pork, and they were YUMMY!!!


After that, it was off to Duke's Waikiki, then to the open air market and Kortni and I didn't just find this cool waterfall with Koi pond, we also found 7 for $20 t-shirts!!

I will finish later :D OKAY - the 25th is officially LATER!!
Kadi kept us busy...very busy. Pics from the 13th...

We went to North Shore...we did not buy any overpriced drinks in frighteningly carved monkey coconuts. I think it was supposed to be a monkey.


There were tomatoes in my coconut milk based clam chowder - folks, I'm all for exotic foods, but this chowder was just flat WEIRD!! and gave me stomach cramps.

Then walking through shops (apparently we didn't come to go to any beach or see the water, surfers, etc...we came to North Shore to eat at that surfer tourist restaurant and walk through shops). I liked this piece of artwork...cuz it's 3D - it has cool stuff on it, and fish and it's my favorite colors :D

You weren't supposed to take photos at this crazy...art gallery? I'm not exactly sure what it is, but it looked like an art club/gallery/hippie fest. After several photos I came across a sign in the ground that requested "NO PHOTOS." Yeah. whatever.

We went to beaches with high surf, strong current warnings. Didn't make them any less beautiful :D it did make us less beautiful as high winds blew our hair all about :D