December 15, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Okay, here we have the budged flash diffuser combo...

I saw a little Photojojo tip on how to use a film canister, which I had actually put off since August because I am not safe with sharp objects and thick plastic (I'm clumsy, what can I say), so in a pinch, I decided a portion cup would work (happened to be during the employee Christmas party at Gino's where we have stacks of these little gems).

So the portion cup worked great! Easily attaches with scotch tape (dollar tree variety used here). Then I got brave and tried the film canister at home...then tried them side by side and then together (by side by side, I mean one shot with just the canister, then one with just the portion cup) and decided that together they work well for close up shots in which you need a flash that would normally wash out the subject.

So a fancy flash, speedlight, off camera remote strobes, or even $60 diffuser attachment would be *cool* but this is way cool...and while I still dream of that delightful Canon 7D...I really think I need the Superheadz Golden Twin that shoots regular 35mm film...and I admit, I could totally get sucked into the toy camera thing. There are some amazing film cameras out there that we in the digital age pay money to filter, grunge and grain up - why not shoot it that way in the first place? Actually, I have to confess, I don't edit my photos to look like they were shot with shoddy film and equipment, but I LOVE THE LOOK!! I'm actually gonna' load the film I have into Abby's *hannah montana* plastic real *toy* camera. Should be FUN!

This fancy contraption should work with ANY on camera flash, pop up or not, providing you can find the portion cup the size you need...scotch tape can be cut to needed size. :) Mine is the 3.25 ounce size, that's what we have at Gino's :o)

December 14, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

My Artscow books came today. NINE of them, all at once. Very cool :)

December 13, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

The Tipsy Man with his *SPIRITS* of Christmas, counting how long he's been sick on his fingers...

The youth group and kids that did the program were AWESOME!! Ruby did a fantastic job on her solo and even got the words mostly right. Jesus was a wonderful child and Joseph got to be his EARTHLY father when she finally got up to perform - as opposed to His *early* father which he'd been all week :D

December 12, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Monika's page from her wedding planning book that has the list of photos she wants taken at her wedding. I should look over that list before Sunday.

December 11, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Chocolate fountain.
Sause Christmas party :)
this year there was a little caramel fountain as well - tasty.

December 10, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Windows shopping...found a new store on accident. I love simple kits and this one was cute and simple.

Digital Scrap Cafe

There was lots of cute stuff there :D

December 9, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

All she wants for Christmas is her two front teeth. She really lost the flappy one that was so loose, wouldn't pull it and it fell out in her sleep, probably swallowed.

December 8, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Leave it to Ruby, when instructed to cut letters out of the newspaper to make words and such, to find the backward R from the Toys 'R' Us ad and make her name...backward.

December 7, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

No snow. Just ice. In the boats. Note Ruby's bathrobe. They broke up the ice...and put it in my freezer.

December 5, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

I'm lit up and flashing. Kelli bought these horns for the supervisor on duty to wear...

I didn't know they lit up until someone pushed my button :D

December 4, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

An egrit out the back door of Gino's in the marsh.

December 3, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Our attempt at some posed photos to make Christmas Cards with - no wonder I always send New Year's Cards.

December 2, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Crab eyes. Bill brought 3 giant cooked crab over in a bag...and I was not feeling well so I didn't even get out of bed, so the kids brought the bag in and put it in my bed. Nice.

Then Ruby plucked all of their eyes out (or would it be off?)

She then left them in the bed with me and took the crab to the kitchen.

December 1, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

*Windows* shopping again. Loved this little brag book template set. I think it must be the rounded corners - I love rounded corners :D

November 30, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

You know you want one. I took swiss cheese to Gino's just for this sandwich. Toasted garlic bread, swiss cheese, onion-mushroom-bell pepper sauteed in the garlic toast spread, and roast beef (heated on foil) - super duper YUMMY :)

November 29, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

We ALL miss Brother Michael, and the whole church loves him - but I think Andrew and his Mommy missed him and love him the most!

Brother Mike was home for a few days on leave and able to spend some time with his family at home, and our church family :o)

God has kept our Marine safe thus far and I am confident that He will continue to do so!

November 28, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Monika made Rudolph with a bun, blue food dye (eyes), broken toothpicks and a piece of linguica. I thought he was cute :D

November 27, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

They sneak into my bed. Almost every morning as soon as Daddy leaves for work.

November 26, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Lutefisk. Yuck. But Dad is SO THRILLED to pose with it. Camden is secretly laughing inside...he eats it because...he's expected to because Grandpa thinks he likes it...

November 25, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Kayla made pumpkin pie tartlets for our Wednesday Thanksgiving Dinner with the Alsworths! YUM! Great dinner, and our "I am thankful for..." book is nearly complete :D

November 24, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Now, I didn't make a whole lot in tips today, but a nice gentleman gave Abby and Ruby $5 worth of quarters to play games because they had to come to work with me...usually Gino's Daycare isn't so exciting, it's usually homework, homework, cut and paste the newspaper...

November 23, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Meow.

November 22, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

I cannot find a single anything from today - unless it's on that roll of film in the T50...which could very well be, I have been packing that camera around with me in the car and USING it. Even so - there's no date stamp on that thing so it would be hard to tell when I took the photo (I could start holding a date tag up...)

November 21, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Happy 34th Birthday to CASEY :o) His secretary wouldn't let me talk to you, she was *sitting on the couch answering the phone* - as in Casey's phone. My niece is so smart :)

For Casey's birthday, we had tea. No, Casey wasn't here. He was at his house, far, far away, where it's much colder. Shaye and Grandma made him a cake I heard - and we're too far away to swing by for a piece of it!

November 20, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

They still have a $0.25 carousel at Big K (kmart) here in Coos Bay - and my kids still like to ride it. Camden barely fits on it anymore lol :)

November 19, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

YES! I got behind again. So sorry. It's cold and flu season...adn it's crazy!!

So, back in July when Kurt bought the $50 worth of fireworks and I cringed...I was thinking that was a nutty, crazy thing to do, but we still have some of them...

Apparently there are only so many of these silly fountains that basically do all the same thing that you can watch in one evening. We still have a couple to light at Christmas...or New Year's Eve :)

November 18, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Okay, so it's not really a photo - but it IS the church letterhead that I converted from PDF to JPG for Pastor Goodwin finally - but really I need to make it a header and footer for him so he can have a template for something like WORD or Open Office Writer...

Perhaps I can cut and paste into new docs tomorrow... :)

November 17, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

TODAY you get a screenshot...and perhaps an embedded video (um, yeah, no good at embedding yet).

So, just a little FYI, I love TMBG, ever since, Istanbul (Not Constantinople), Particle Man, Birdhouse in Your Soul...and countless others. There are some bizarre things they do that I'm not particularly fond of but most of it - I love. My KIDS love them now too because they have done some REALLY AWESOME kid stuff...like this. Ruby could sing this when she was "little." (no, she hasn't grown up, she just says things like, "when I was little...").

ANYHOW, my favorite part about their videos is the CORNY, SUPER COOL ANIMATION!!

November 16, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Two things are important today. The first is mentioned briefly at drink more tea, and that would be my CHAI - yes, yes, I know to you without tea knowledge this looks like a freaky pot of soup...but it's not. Okay, perhaps it's freaky, but it's not soup. It's...better than hot cocoa, so we made a gallon. Black tea, and I tossed in some white tea (pai mu tan) and green tea (gen mai cha) as well, then milk, water, about a cup of honey, spices (yeah, wish i could remember what i threw in that can - you see, i have a big can of odds and ends of stuff that is the chai blend can, so end of misc. black tea, star anise, hand grated nutmeg, bits of cinnamon, end of dried peppermint, ginger pieces...you get the picture). Simmer 20 minutes or so (after it heats up, no use timing how long it takes to get to the point where it's hot enough to simmer). YUMMY!! I tried to get a good shot of the star anise and the pink peppercorn...those are my favorite aesthetic ingredients :D I think it might be a little blurry. That's how you would see it if you tainted it with grown up beverage, which I didn't.

And photo #2 is just for Abigail, I promised her I'd post it to my blog...and she will post it to hers as well - she put together Ruby's *Polly Pocket* poster. Ruby got angry and had to disengage, no use being angry at a puzzle, it doesn't growl back :)

November 15, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Mr. Hinkel, does it count as *HOMEWORK* if the Polly Pocket is standing on top of the world?

Ruby got Fashion Designer Polly Pockets from Grandpa & Kelli for her birthday...and she and Abigail sneaked back up after we went to sleep and they Polly Pocketed whilst watching Kim Possible (via internet) until...DADDY GOT UP FOR WORK! No joke. Insomnia set in and they were as quiet as a couple of church mice without Cam here to rat them out (he's still hunting).

Isn't it kinda' cute how they also captured Ruby's backward (and split up) signature on the white board :o)

November 14, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Hooray! It was Kortni's Happy 23rd Birthday Today - with yummy carrot cake!!

Camera was left in the car, cell phone to the rescue.

Heard a hilarious story about the OSU Campus Barber trimming Rob's eyebrows...and THAT my friends is why Rob won't get a haircut - apparently barbers from the South are trained to give the brows a trim...and Rob didn't want his trimmed...and everyone laughed at him :D

November 13, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Hmmm...this looks suspiciously like BIRTHDAY CAKE...

With lit up candles...and a smiley girl...

HAPPY 7th BIRTHDAY RUBY!!
These photos weren't taken by me! YAY, I got to be the birthday MOM and let others take photos!! Yeah, I took some too, but these were good catches - first 2 by Angie Wright, end one by Alana's Mommy, Sabina Bridges! Thank you Mrs. Angie & Bina!! :)

Ruby's party was at the church because she told her Daddy she wanted to have it someplace SPECIAL and he suggested Gino's and McDonald's and she put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes and said, "No Dad. The Church. I want my party at THE CHURCH because The Church is special, cuz that's where JESUS is" Too cute!

Thank you Pastor Goodwin for permission to have the party there and Thank you Sister Goodwin for the HOT DOGS!

Thank You Sister Sandy for helping me calm down and doing most of the clean up!
Thank you Sisters Becky & Alaina for assisting with crowd control and cleanup, and Brothers Scott & Bill for helping put everything away and sweep up...and Kord for your service!

YOU ARE ALL AN AWESOME FAMILY :o) and we love you!

November 12, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Folks, the only photo I can find from November 12th is of my HOT DATE. I thought there were others on the memory card, but no, can't find a single one. So here you have it...Jethro. I married Jethro. Jethro did not get to go to Wal-Mart...but he did think he was REALLY funny at Dairy Queen making fun of their NASTY *alien like* fry sauce...somebody help me out here, what is that prepackaged stuff that comes in the white buckets and claims to be fry sauce? EEW! Thank you Kent for having REAL (yummy) fry sauce!

:)

November 11, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Isn't this the most pathetic thing I have shown you yet? I am telling you, this dog, he is an EMOTIONAL MANIPULATOR. Puppy dog eyes? Yeah, he invented them. No. This look won't cause me to let him sleep in my bed. Ever. At least not when I am home and have a say in the matter...

November 10, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Gentlemen from Connect I Cut ...I AM SOOOO SORRY, I misplaced your email address. But here you have them folks, hungry guys from Connecticut, on their way up the west coast. They flew into Ontario, CA and were going to fly back out of...Seattle, WA when they got there. Got to Gino's just after we closed, but before the door was locked...and the oven was still hot so we fixed 'em a *BULLDOG* (thanks Dad for picking a custom pizza that requires us to take EVERYTHING out again) to go with some Diet Pepsi and they were happy campers :)

And for those that are not figuring out Connect I Cut - Blogger thought Connecticut was too long to fit into my template, so I used a funny (at least I think it's funny) from 4th grade. Because if you Connect, I cut...we spell it correctly :D

November 9, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Camden with sore throat and pain in ears - had to go to the Doc. Well, there are signs all over saying if you have a cough, headache, runny nose, fever, sore throat...blah blah blah, please wear a mask. Now why the entire clinic wasn't full of masked people, I know not, but I made my kids put them on just to comply. Gimme' a break, who doesn't have at least ONE of those symptoms during the winter months? I mean, you need only SEE THE SIGN and it causes you to sniff...or cough...never fails. Fine when I walk in, see the sign, nose turns to auto drip just like a coffee pot. Camden was mortified, the blue mask isn't stylish...but it matches the M&Ms shirt...

November 8, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Sometimes I have trouble. Sunday, I needed a little nap before work. Well, a little nap turned into all afternoon, and in a groggy, mostly moping type state, I got up and got ready for work...rather hurriedly after oversleeping and I got to work and looked down at my feet and thought...why is one of my shoes shiny? Wait a second...I don't even own any penny loafers. Wait another second...I am wearing one of my loafers and one of Kurt's loafers...ugh.

Fortunately, I had a spare pair of MATCHING *red* mary janes in the car. Phew. Timberland even. I texted this photo to many people because I thought it was so stinking funny. LAUGH WITH ME ALL YOU TIRED MOMS - *I know you've been there*

November 7, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Pastels...for my little artist girl...

Devon's 11th Birthday at the bowling alley, which enabled the Smith family to...

Crash this other bowling party - who know part of the church would be there - on a day when Kurt WANTED to bowl but had no one to bowl with! Bless their lil' pea pickin' hearts! :)

Fun times :)

November 6, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Glamorous isn't she?

November 5, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

They found the SAME radio stations on their little auto seek radios! :)

Aren't they cute?

AND whilst trouble shooting the acer one on their website - getting ready to file a warranty claim and ship it off...I found a link to "my netbook powers on but the screen stays black," scenario and guess what? MY NETBOOK ISN'T CRASHED it just needed a BIOS update. Download these files, unzip them, change the names of certain files in this folder, put those 2 files on a flash drive, put flash drive into netbook, hold fn and esc down while pushing the power button, continue holding them for a few seconds then let go...power button flashed like it was supposed to, usb drive flashed like it was working and within 2 minutes - there was my login screen. PHEW. everything still there. Thank You Jesus!

November 4, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

My canvas of Phil & Kadi came today!! They are so cute - and this is the 8x10 - perfect size for their little apartment!

Canvas People had a special where if you paid the shipping ($15) the 8x10 was free (hahahaha, free) - you could also get a discount on larger size. Their *effects* of course were an additional charge so you really should use your OWN ARTWORK (photoshop, the photo software on your mac, that sort of thing) :)

November 3, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

I thought a photo of the screen as I am catching up would be fitting :D I am such a nerd.

November 2, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Beautiful day on the boardwalk, secretly wished I were sailing away on that vessel instead of picking up lunch and going back to the school to eat...but the sushi was mmmm.....mmmm....delicious!! Maybe next time stow away WITH the sushi :D