Archives for April 2008

What did you do this weekend?

We’ve had our camper for about a year and finally took it camping to a REAL campground this weekend.  It was so much fun.  A lot of work but loads of fun too.  We’ve camped out at a friend’s horse farm and we’ve camped a lot in our driveway but we are official CAMPERS now!

Here’s a few shots from our weekend.

So here’s what red sand/dirt/mud look like in the southeast……

Here’s our camper and our youngest son helping me sweep….
We fished almost every day and never caught a thing!  Maybe I was glad I wasn’t forced to eat something fishy for dinner…

Our middle son got a kick out of the two crickets (which we fished with) fighting…

Middle son after he got one of those guys on his hook.  The color is a little off in this photo (too green) but I was too tired to fix it so forgive me…

Here’s our friend Tonya grilling dinner Saturday night.  You can see all the kids fishing in the background…

It sprinkled this morning and was so wonderful waking up to the tap, tap, tap of the rain on the camper.  Baby girl was singing in the rain this morning.  The water was really warm compared to the air…..

These next two pictures are two of my favorites from the weekend….
Baby girl and daddy looking out over the lake…

And our youngest son with his ever-present light saber.  The look he has on his face is so him!!!…


Freaky Friday Foto


I took this photo on my walk while visiting my friend Sandy in Ocean Isle Beach NC.
Why 19 MPH?
Why not 20 or 15??


100 Tidbits about me + Photos

Well I thought you might get bored reading all this stuff about me so I’ve included photos too.  They are pretty interesting facts but photos never hurt!  Here we go….

So I was reading Dee Dee’s blog and got inspired.  Bear with me!  I did these last night as I was falling asleep so you can get in the mood with the list…

100 Tidbits about me

(yikes that’s a lot)

  1. 1.       I love Jesus.  He’s my all and all.  He’s my man!
  2. 2.      My husband’s my man too.  He did one arm push-ups for me tonight and he was in the hall which is dark so I couldn’t tell if he had clothes on or not.
  3. 3.      Don’t tell him I told you.  He’d get embarrassed.
  4. 4.      When my husband hurts himself I get the giggles.  Don’t know why but it’s insane giggles.
  5. 5.      It happens sometimes too with my kids.
  6. 6.      I’m sure I’m falling down on the mommy/wife scale right now.
  7. 7.      I gave my life to Jesus wholeheartedly when I was 29.
  8. 8.      I wish I had been 9, I’d saved a lot of bad mistakes.
  9. 9.      I never thought I’d have 4 kids.
  10. 10.   Good thing my hubbie and I didn’t meet earlier because we’d probably have twelve kids by now.
  11. 11.   We do pregnancy well
  12. 12.   I’m adopted and met my birth mother 5 years ago this month (April).
  13. 13.   I met my half sister and half brother too.
  14. 14.   They’re all pretty cool cats (now I know where I get it).
  15. 15.   My birth-dad (whom I’ve also met) lives about 4 hours away from me.
  16. 16.   He’s pretty rockin’ too.
  17. 17.   Oh, and those great parents who raised me…they’re the best!  Hi MOM!!  Hi DAD!!
  18. 18.   I had one brother and one sister until 5 years ago.
  19. 19.   Now I have 4 brothers and 2 sisters.
  20. 20.   I hate it when people leave dishes in MY sink.
  21. 21.   I also do not like (with a little less passion) putting up folded laundry.
  22. 22.   I like to vacuum though!  Kinda like riding a broom.
  23. 23.   I swam on the swim team growing up.
  24. 24.   I rode horses too.
  25. 25.   I still love both.
  26. 26.   My main hobby love right now is photography.
  27. 27.   My hubbie said I could buy a new Tamrac camera bag for Mother’s Day.  It’s already been ordered!!!!
  28. 28.   I’m six feet two inches tall.
  29. 29.   I wear a size 12 shoe.
  30. 30.   Yes, I modeled and played basketball.
  31. 31.   Wasn’t very good at either. 
  32. 32.   My kids are gonna be tall, yep, off the chart tall!
  33. 33.   I went to college at UNC-Wilmington.
  34. 34.   I majored in boys there.
  35. 35.   Then I transferred to Elon University.
  36. 36.   I double majored in boys and parties there.
  37. 37.   See what I mean about Jesus at age 9?
  38. 38.   I’m a pet lover.
  39. 39.   We are at our lowest count since having kids I think…1 dog, 2 cats, 2 fish and all the kids are still alive.
  40. 40.   I once went on a blind date where the girl who set me up ended up marrying the guy.
  41. 41.   Isn’t that weird???
  42. 42.   I paint….watercolors.
  43. 43.   Oh, I paint in my spare time which in NEVER right now.
  44. 44.   One day I WILL paint AGAIN!!
  45. 45.   I love honest people
  46. 46.   I appreciate tactful people
  47. 47.   Put them together and you’re my new best friend!
  48. 48.   I love coffee in the mornings.  Just one cup though.
  49. 49.   I weaned myself off of Diet Coke last year.  A tough tough job!
  50. 50.   I am running out of things to write already.
  51. 51.   I danced my entire childhood…tap, jazz, ballet and toe.
  52. 52.   I didn’t like toe.
  53. 53.   My sister thought I was a slob growing up.  We had to share a room.
  54. 54.   I get motion sick just thinking about a Merry Go Rounds.
  55. 55.   I do not do roller coasters….I’ll be at the petting zoo.
  56. 56.   I love sleeping and wonder if I’ll ever get enough again.
  57. 57.   I sold some nursing bras on Ebay once and my pastor found out (EMBARRASSING!!!)
  58. 58.   He now sells his underwear on Ebay (ha! Just kidding)
  59. 59.   I found out I was pregnant with my second son when my first was 5 months old.
  60. 60.   I was scared to death.
  61. 61.   I went skiing in Colorado with #3 unaware in my belly.
  62. 62.   I’ve been to Colorado, California, Canada and the southeastern US (plus Jersey).
  63. 63.   Jersey has really good silver queen corn, that I do remember.
  64. 64.   The San Francisco area was a big disappointment to me. 
  65. 65.   I like what was in my head about the area better.
  66. 66.   Now, skiing in Colorado……almost heaven.
  67. 67.   Oh, and Palm Springs California in February ain’t bad either!!
  68. 68.   My aunt owns a house at the beach.  She lets us stay there each year.  She likes us! (smile)
  69. 69.   My favorite car would be one that drives itself.
  70. 70.   I drive a Nissan Quest van.
  71. 71.   We are on the Dave Ramsey get out of debt plan
  72. 72.   It’s going well.  (besides that blamed van)
  73. 73.   I learned to like broccoli for the first time this year.  Lots of butter and sea salt.
  74. 74.   Tonight’s steak got eaten before it was off the grill ( I didn’t have lunch.)
  75. 75.   I fed the chitlins chicken tonight while me and hubbie had steak!  Go ‘rents!!
  76. 76.   I need to go to sleep
  77. 77.   My toenails are painted pink….and are for the first time this season.
  78. 78.   When the polish is off my toes my sweet hubbie calls them “nursing home” toes.
  79. 79.   The gall of some men!!!
  80. 80.   I loved REO Speedwagon growing up.
  81. 81.   My favorite books are RED, BLACK and White by Ted Dekker
  82. 82.   Favorite song??  Eliohim by Nicole C. Mullins
  83. 83.   Worst food….cauliflower
  84. 84.   Best food….chocolate
  85. 85.   I love my camera …. A digital canon rebel xti
  86. 86.   I also love Viva Papertowels…..ever tried them??
  87. 87.   I love Beth Moore bible studies.
  88. 88.   My hubbie snores
  89. 89.   So do I, or so HE says.
  90. 90.   He’s snoring.
  91. 91.   I’m not!
  92. 92.   I need to be.
  93. 93.   Gotta get up to get the gang ready in the morning.
  94. 94.   No appointments tomorrow…yippee!
  95. 95.   Oh, favorite TV shows….Dancing with the Stars, Idol, Medium, NCIS
  96. 96.   Favorite time of day….evening when the sun is setting.
  97. 97.   Wonder if I wake my hubbie up he’ll do some more of those push-ups???
  98. 98.   Better wait til tomorrow.
  99. 99.   I sleep with 4 pillows.
  100. 100.    And I’d have more if I could

My hubbie coaching and our second oldest son (above)

This is what all the siblings do while the boys are playing football (above)

This is Keshaun running and I loved the motion in this photo.  Look at the kid trying to get Keshaun’s flag.  I love his face.  Our second son is the other kid in white (above)


What in the World Wednesday???

I took pictures at the game last night and decided to do a little work with RAW images.  About 1/4 of my pictures came out looking like this…….
Ok all you bloggy photo friends, what’s up???



Scenes from Thursday night's football game

Thursday night we had a flag football game and this ended up being my favorite shot of the night.  I love the warmth of the light on baby girl’s face ….
There’s just something untouchable and indescribable that makes me love this picture.



Photoshop Elements 6.0 Tip 2 – Making a Smile

The liquify tool….making a smile

Ok, so let me show you the photo first.  I didn’t retouch these at all except for the tool I’m showing you so know they could have been a little brighter and sharper but no time!!!!  So, onward…….

Here’s NO SMILE….

and here’s a SMILE……..

Pretty cool huh?

Ok, here’s the steps.
Open the Editing part of Elements 6.0
Choose Filter, then Distort, then Liquify
In the Tool Options on the right hand side of the page choose a brush size that is about the size of the person’s cheek.
Place the brush at the base of the cheek, click and hold your mouse down while you drag slightly up.
If necessary (which it wasn’t in this photo) do the other side. 
And as the wonderful book indicates be careful how far you tug or you’ll turn your cute little one into Joker from Batman Returns
Click OK to apply the change adn save as a copy!

Have fun!!!
(taken from The Photoshop Elements 6.0 Book which can be purchased here.)


Wordless Wednesday – Sandals and Sand


The neverending attempt at blogging….

This is my third attempt to post this particular post.

Maybe this one will stick.  I’m having trouble with Mozilla locking up so I’m trying this in the dreaded IE!  I much prefer Mozilla Firefox.

So, me and baby girl did the trampoline thing this weekend.  Here are a few pictures from  the weekend.  While you are blog perusing check out the trampoline pictures at Live and Learn.  Alyssa has some crazy pictures over there!!!

Ahhh….I love this expression of total childhood on her face.  All is right with the world when jumping on the trampoline

Today’s post at Shutter Sisters is about chopping off heads.  You’ve gotta see that one!  It’s great.  So here is my chopped off head.  Dad, this one’s just for you!!!


Not so Freaky Friday Fotos of our Field Trip

Yesterday we took a field trip to Paris Mountain State Park where we did a little hiking.  Here are a few pictures from the day:

The Gang:  My four plus friend Dakota

Son #3 plus Dakota (eating lunch on the trail)

I love this picture because Baby Girl has the funniest expressing on her face.  They are taking turn drinking water from the water fountain.

The ferns were sprouting their new growth and Baby Girl thought they were so cool, "like little babies, mama!".  She kept stopping to Ohh and Ahh over them and to pet them into existence!

Have a great Friday!!!


Photoshop Cool Stuff (Elements 6.0) Tip 1

I recently upgraded to Photoshop Elements 6.0 and have been waiting to order the book to go along with it.  I love others tutorials.  In it I found this cool trick. 

Photo ONE (posted just a day or so ago)

Photo TWO (with a little tweaking)

Can you spot the difference? 
There is this cool tool called Liquify……
Before I tell you what I did I’m going to show you how to use it.
From the editing section of Photoshop Elements 6.0:
1.  Click on the Filter menu
2.  Choose Liquify
3.  When that dialog box appears pick the 5th tool down from the top.  It’s on the left hand side of the screen.  It looks like a square with it’s sides pinched in a little.  Click on that little guy.
4.  It’s the Pucker Tool.  And it puckers anywhere you click it.  I made the circle that indicates the size of the tool I’m using a size that my nose fit inside perfectly.  Then I clicked.  After one click I centered the right side of my nose inside the circle and clicked.  Then the left side of my nose.  Click.
5.  And voila! … a smaller nose. 
Go back and look….yep, it’s tinier!
Cool huh?
Wonder what else I can shrink?  Maybe my muffin top (better know as a fat roll)
Have fun! 

note:  this info. was taken from the book mentioned above
The Photoshop Elements 6 book for digital photographers by Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski


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