I woke up by 6:30 everyday while in AZ. It was nice and light by that time, so as not to wake everyone I took off for an early morning walk most mornings. I took my trusty camera along with me and it was wonderful to photograph some unusual plants. My sister helped me identify most of the plants but unfortunately I forgot to write down their names. This is some type of fern that was just getting ready to unfurl its leaves.
We spent Easter with my brother’s kids. This is Sam. He’s the only young one in the family at the moment. He wasn’t as friendly as he was back in October. He was a little shy and stuck close to his parents most of the time. But it was still great to see him and all the rest of the relatives.
Today Kira and I traveled to Arizona to spend spring break with my mom. We arrived at my mom’s house around 10:30 PM. After the hugs, kisses and it’s so good to see yous my mom put Kira to work dying Easter eggs. She had everything ready so it was an easy job. We all chatted while Kira continued an Easter tradition. I think she was probably a little disappointed that I didn’t carry on the tradition of an Easter basket since we were away. She’s not a candy eater and I knew I’d be spending money on a prom dress later in the week so decided not to fill a basket with mainly unneeded items. On Easter we took the eggs to a relative’s house for my grand-nephew to hunt. He was a little too young but he found a few and it was fun to watch.
Another sign of spring. The dirt rearranger spent a few hours in our neighborhood going up and down the streets. Unfortunately there were lots of piles of dirt in the road from people that had already raked the old sand out of their yards and swept it off the street themselves.
I just checked and it is officially a full moon tonight. I took my camera to my daughter's lacrosse game thinking it might be too dark to take a picture outside when I got home. However, when I pulled into the garage I caught a glimpse of this site. I got out the tripod and got a decent shot of it. The tripod is quickly becoming my best friend when it comes to photography, well besides my macro lens.
I was really hoping I was done with winter related pictures until next November. But when I got home today and actually paid attention to the flakes landing on my window as I pulled into the driveway I realized they were perfect flakes for photographing. I grabbed the camera and tripod and started shooting. This is the only one that turned out really nice. But it's my best so far so I'm happy! I'll be perfectly content not to have another chance at shooting snowflakes for at least 6 months.
I remember playing with this wind up toy when I was a little girl. I've put it out for Easter for many years and my children enjoyed playing with it as well. I wonder how many of their toys will be kept and still be working in 45+ years.
I'm so excited that I'm finally figuring out how to use my camera and macro lens. I tried to watch all my settings today and purposely took this one because the two buds were on the same plane and I knew they'd both be in focus. This is my favorite picture at the moment! It will be awhile before we can smell these beauties but they are on their way. Don't they look like little berries? And the good news is that the tree is full of them.
I stopped by a Trout Expo today to say Hi to one of our 5th grade teachers and some of her students. They were there showing what they were doing with the Trout in the Classroom program. They raise trout eggs and let them go into a nearby stream at the end of May. One man was tying flies. I took several pictures of them and this little guy pictured here was certainly the cutest. Once I started looking at the pictures I started kicking myself for not taking more time to talk with the gentleman about this dainty creatures. Some were very simple and some were quite detailed. I did my editing with Photoshop.com and played around with adding text and speech bubbles just for fun.
After the photo meeting and before a late dinner we stopped by my husband's office to pick up his laptop. As you can see he is a collector. I'm not sure he'll ever be able to retire since there's no room in the house or even the garage for this stuff with all his other collections! There are notes on the flickr photo describing some of the items. Just click on the photo to go to flickr. There more pictures of his office there as well.
I meant to take a picture at the photo class I attended tonight for my POD and then I forgot. My husband had deleted all his pictures too except this one, so I'll use it.
It was a 2.5 hour class that ended up being 3. The three instructors and they were extremely knowledgeable, friendly and they kept it fun. It was also a great ratio for getting help with only 7 students in the class. I thought my husband might be bored since he knew much of the info they covered but he learned enough new things that he enjoyed it as well. I still get confused by all the different terms but some are starting to make sense and I know the more I use my camera, read and keep asking questions the clearer things will become. As we get closer and closer to the empty nest it's nice to know I have a new hobby to pursue.
If I ever get around to putting these cookie cutter photos on my ipod it will make it nice the next time I'm at an antique show wondering if I have a certain cookie cutter or not. My daughter uses these to carry on the family tradition of nice fluffy sugar cookies. Hers turn out so much better than mine that I've quit making them!
Tonight my daughter was inducted into the National Honor Society. She works hard for her 96 average and I couldn't be any prouder of her work ethic, her choice of friends, her determination and quiet but friendly and caring personality.
When we got out of the car I asked if I could bring in the camera. That comment was met with an immediate No! So, I had to settle for the phone camera which I'm still trying to figure out. The picture came out blurry and with a terrible glare on my daughter's head. But instead of being discouraged I remembered Colemama's words of advice this week ; "Seeing the 'something' often involves the under-emphasized and likely, misunderstood process of editing." So, after seeing a Plurk about Online Photoshop I gave it a try with this picture. I still need to work on the glare on her head but it's much better than the original.
I had just started my first class when the secretary walked in and said she needed to talk to me. That's not usually a good sign. Sure enough my daughter's school nurse had called and said I needed to come pick her up and take her for xrays. She got hit in the ankle with a hockey stick by a fellow LAX player during PE.
You know taking your daughter to urgent care is old news when upon hearing this message you roll your eyes and just sigh. I think the nurse was a little surprised at how long it took me to get there. I had sub plans to write and with a sub new to our district coming in there was no way I was leaving regular plans in the computer lab! My daughter has played hockey since she was four and this has resulted in numerous trips to doctors and hospitals, two surgeries and even a ride in an ambulance. I tease her that the insurance company is going to offer to pay her not play a sport, since that would certainly be cheaper for them! All the injuries has helped me not go into a panic mode when I hear she's hurt. I knew she'd be ok until I could get there. I assured her if they had said it was a head injury I would have gotten there quickly. Luckily this is just a bruise. She's hoping to be ok to play in her first LAX game on Friday night. She was still limping this morning so I guess time will tell.
