Sunday, October 31, 2010

October Photos

Photo Hunt List courtesy of PhotoHuntChallenges.com.  See more participant entries for this month’s hunt by clicking here.  Voting on favorites begins after November 7th. 

  1. In Disguise 
    alwaysfaith - indisguise
    K-man in his storm trooper mask that we brought back from NY for him. 

  2. Crisp  
    alwaysfaith - crisp 
    Leaves…and although the picture doesn’t really show it, the air was crisp this morning, too.  I nearly froze.  

  3. Fall Colors
    alwaysfaith - fallcolors
    Somewhere over NY…our plane was coming in for the landing in Rochester. 

  4. A Jack O’lantern
    alwaysfaith - jackolantern
    This isn’t a standard jack o’lantern, but it’s a pumpkin and it looks like it IS a lantern.  The funny thing is that it wasn’t lit at all…it was just covered in some reflective sparkles and when I took the picture, the sparkles reflected the light and made it look like it was glowing.  =) 

  5. a Shot from the Ground 
    alwaysfaith - shotfromground
    Munchkin getting off the school bus.  Yes, I think the bus driver did give me a funny look.  =)

  6. a Landscape
    alwaysfaith - landscape 
    Irondequoit Bay in Rochester, NY…

  7. a Fall Tradition 
    alwaysfaith - falltradition 
    Picking out pumpkins at the pumpkin patch… 

  8. Books
    alwaysfaith - book 
    In the middle of a book…this is one of my absolute favorite things to do in the car…(WHEN I’M RIDING, of course ;-)  lol

  9. Dining
    alwaysfaith - dining
    Getting ready to eat cake for my Grandma’s 85th birthday. 

  10. Child/Children
    alwaysfaith - children
    She said ‘butt’!!!”

  11. Faces formed in Nature (anything that looks like a face but isn’t : examples here)
    alwaysfaith - faceinnature
    I looked and looked and looked….I finally gave up…this was my very last picture and KC said, just make a face on the sidewalk out of leaves or acorns or something.  LOL…so I did.  ;-)

  12. Tilt-Shift Photography  (Tutorial Here) (Tilt-Shift Maker here)
    alwaysfaith - tiltshift 
    I’m not sure if this actually works since it wasn’t officially from an upward angle, but I can sort of imagine these being miniatures…?

  13. B & W with selective coloring (Tutorial here)
    alwaysfaith - selectivecolor
    Street sign…kinda feels like Christmas, but it’s really October.  I think it must be the colors. 

  14. Bokeh (Tutorial here)
    alwaysfaith - bokeh  
    I think this qualifies…

  15. Best Photo taken October 23rd
    alwaysfaith - bestof10-23 
    This road was old…was made of bricks.  You could break an ankle wearing flats on this road…lol.  Too bad the bricks weren’t yellow, though.  LOL!

  16. Something from the Kitchen
    alwaysfaith - fromkitchen
    Buckeyes!  Sis T made them yesterday for fall festival at church. 

  17. Something Vintage 
    alwaysfaith - vintage
    Grandma’s manuscript.  She’s 85 and she wrote it out by hand and decorated it when she was young…so that’s pretty vintage. 

  18. Something Creepy
    alwaysfaith - creepy
    I just think fog rising off the water is creepy.  =)  I know it’s just fog, but still…

  19. Something Golden 
    alwaysfaith - golden 
    The leaves are definitely golden. 

  20. A Self-Portrait
    alwaysfaith - selfportrait
    Okay…this is my least favorite.  I couldn’t get the focus right so it’s blurry and then there’s the fact that I just don’t like pictures of me, plus I wanted something creative and this wasn’t…but oh well. 

And there.  It is finished.  ;-)  Yay!  And by the way, today is day 31…I did it!  I posted every single day for an entire month!  Go self!  =) 

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Good Night

I’m not sure what it is, but it doesn’t matter how hard I try to get done with my list of things to do after I put the kids in bed, it never seems to happen and before I know it, there I am again at 11:02 and the hubby has given up and is snoring in the chair.  fruit gameweb

Tonight--it was Sunday School.  I am usually the assistant for my amazing friend, but she put together the fall fest this week (which was where we were tonight and why I didn’t get this done sooner) and needed me to take over the SS lesson for Sunday. 

So I thunk and thunk and finally settled on a fruit of the spirit game…and then I had to come up with the rules and print out the game pieces and….well, you get the idea.  It’s fairly simple and I’m using Moral Scenario cards from another game and just sorting them into characteristics that lean toward specific fruits of the spirit.  We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.  Our class has been talking about fruits of the spirit for several weeks now, so it kinda flows…lol.  Teaching isn’t my gift…I’d much rather assist, but for my friend, I’ll step out of my comfort zone.  ;-)  

I was hoping I could figure this out faster and still have time to go through my pictures to see what I still need to work on for the photo hunt, but now I’m tired and I’ll have to get up early for church tomorrow, so I guess I’ll try to get it done after church. 

I think I have most of the pictures for the hunt, but I’m not positive until I go through and edit some of them to see if they will work.  I’m not doing it tonight though.  Tonight I’m getting OFF the computer.  ;-) 

Goodnight! 

Friday, October 29, 2010

Eeek!

It’s 10:54 and I want to go to bed…but I can’t.  Because I haven’t done this yet.  Some nights it would be easier NOT to stick to the challenge. 

So.  It’s almost Halloween.  I saw a church sign the other day that made me laugh.  On October 31st, they are apparently having a hallelujah party.  LOL.  I have a question, if you have a positive celebration on a negative holiday, how is that different or better than just doing some of the “innocent” things that are associated with the “evil” holiday? 

After seeing some of the posts on FB about it, maybe I shouldn’t even ask that question…and in all honesty, we technically already do BOTH, since many of the “fall games” are actually also related to Halloween…I just googled it and read the wikipedia on it.  LOL.  Anyway. 

Moving on…K-man has blown me away the last couple of days.  He went from knowing one or two of the sight words we’ve been working on to rattling off over a dozen of them.  I love it!  Finally!  And Munchkin…well…she was bumped up to accelerated reader and had her first two tests in it this week.  100% and 90% on the first two.  I LOVE it.  YAY! 

Well, moving on again…and this time to the bed!  I’m tired.  Have a great evening. 

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Life Is Short

Eat dessert first. 

I talked to my dad this afternoon.  He said he talked to my uncle in NY and grandma didn’t eat much yesterday and today she stayed in bed all day.  That’s not like her – the staying in bed all day part.

When we were up there, we all tried to get her to eat substantial food (which is totally important, by the way) and she would eat a few bites and then say she was full.  But if you mentioned dessert or chocolate, her eyes would light up and she forgot all about being full. 

So, I went out and bought chocolates and sweets for her.  I got the biggest smiles out of her when I brought them in, too…she bopped me on the nose and called me honeybunch, like she did when I was a kid.  “Oh, you honeybunch, you.”  LOL.  And then she ate them.  With not a single complaint about being full.  =)

But it’s like I told dad, if this is really the end of her life, and if chocolate brings some kind of happiness, then why not let her have chocolate?  When you look at a life that is almost over and now consists of four walls and a recliner, why eat broccoli?  Not that there’s a thing wrong with broccoli, and heaven knows, she’s going to starve to death if she doesn’t eat something, for sure, but if I were in the last days of my life, HEY – bring on the chocolate! 

It’s true, even a long life on earth is still just a blink, and none of us are guaranteed another day…so thank you, Lord, for today and every day you bless me and my family with life. 

Now, could someone please pass the chocolate?

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Photo Editing Fun

I’m not sure why, but working on these pictures last night made me laugh.  I didn’t take these, my mother-in-law sent them to me to edit for her…they are pictures of KC’s grandma that she took a couple weeks ago.  But I thought I’d share, maybe they will make you smile, too.  =) 

BEFORE:
003

AFTER:
edit 8edit 9edit 10

 

BEFORE:
006

AFTER:
edit 2edit 3

 

BEFORE:
004 

AFTER:
edit 4edit 6edit 5

Are you smiling yet?  I think it’s because KC’s grandma is a real character and I think that fact just comes screaming through these pictures.  Love it! 

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Randomosity

Oh dear.  It has been a day. 

We went to DSS this morning to meet a toddler to see if we would be interested in taking him.  He was a cute bugger, but there were multiple factors playing into it that we just couldn’t overlook.  He was the baby brother of the two that we took two years ago that I couldn’t deal with…and although that wasn’t really any problem, the fact that those two siblings are STILL up in the air with their case because their judge won’t finish the process in a timely manner throws up some serious red flags for us (they have the same judge as K-man had).  I’m just not ready to go through the long drawn out battle again right now.  Plus, he was LITTLE.  I’m not about the baby thing now that things have calmed down again, PLUS I got rid of every last bit of things for 12-15 month old toddlers, PLUS our dogs are huge…and he was NOT…that’s just a recipe for disaster.  So we said no.  I felt terrible but I’d rather say no if I don’t have a good feeling that it would work out instead of shuffling him through another home after I figure out the hard way that it wouldn’t work. 

I’ve had a headache all day.  Not a killer headache that makes you curl up in a ball and cry, but the kind that makes you stay in your jammies for the rest of the day and not feel like doing anything.  It also makes you wish for something good to read while you don’t feel like doing anything.  *sigh*  Chest is tight, too…I’m not sure what’s the cause for that, but it’s annoying. 

I did piddle around on the internet for awhile…found a few links that I may revisit and try in the near future.

  • Cork board redo (I have a corkboard that is desperate for a face lift and this would be perfect!) 
  • Autumn Subway Art (I am loving the subway art idea right now, and I like the words they used for this one…might need to copy! ;-)
  • Pumpkin Faces Craft (the kids would LOVE these and how adorable are they!?!)

And now I’m going to go take round three of advil/ibuprofen and another glass of water. 

Oh, one more bit of random, I found a pair of Dr. Pepper jammie pants in NY and bought them.  They are like 3 sizes too big but boy are they comfortable.  They are also making my mouth water ALL the TIME…and I don’t have ANY Dr. Pepper to make it better.  *SIGH* 

Monday, October 25, 2010

Round-Up! =)

How do I pull all of this together?   Last time I posted any detail, we were heading over to the hotspot at the grocery store across the street from Grandma’s house, so I couldn’t really finish writing anything much. 

While we’re on the topic of that grocery store, though, let me just tell you about it.  I don’t know if any of ya’ll have ever been in a Wegman’s or if it’s strictly a NY thing, but that store is the BOMB!  I gave KC the grand tour on Friday night when we went to get food to cook for Grandma’s birthday supper.  He was impressed, and it’s tough to impress him!  *GRIN*  I may have mentioned it before when I was up here a few months ago, but the place has EVERYTHING, AND pretty reasonable pricing.  I’ve never been in a grocery store that had a coffee shop, a ginormous cafe, sub shop, giant bakery, sushi bar, fresh food market, deli, candy shop, pharmacy, AND free daycare service right inside the front door so you can shop in peace.  Amazing!  Of course, our kids weren’t with us, so we got to shop in peace anyway, but it’s a genius idea!  

Also on Friday, while we were out shopping, we were also seeking an inexpensive (and convenient) way to modify the bed we were sleeping in at Grandma’s (I’m pretty sure it was the bed that belonged to my GREAT Grandma).  My first thought was to just grab one of those foam eggshell things and a couple of pillows.  We had to have something that we could easily get back on the plane with though, or else inexpensive enough to just leave at Grandma’s.   IMG_8583ewebWe quickly found out that foam tops for mattresses are not small enough to fit in the suitcase OR inexpensive enough for 2 nights use.  Pillows were easy, $5 each is definitely worth 2 nights of comfort and we just left them there, but the mattress problem was a little more challenging.  And in the interest of full disclosure, I’m sure the mattress and pillows were fine for most people, we are just totally used to NON-firm mattresses and memory foam pillows, so when you sleep on a mattress that is approximately equal in firmness to say….the floor ;o) and the pillows are feather and disappear when you lay your head on them….well, we just needed to make adjustments in order to actually get some sleep.  LOL. 

Our final solution was an air mattress on sale at Wally World for $20, and we just stacked it right on top of the other bed.  The next two nights we slept like logs.  Still didn’t compare to getting back home and in our OWN bed, but it worked.  =) 

Let’s see.  Grandma.  Boy howdy, she was grouchy with us on Saturday.  I think IMG_8681ewebher medication makes her a little out of it, but she still comes up with some spunk every now and then.  Dad told her to let me trim her beard at breakfast one morning and she got all huffy and said, “Well, did you have to tell everybody about it?”  She was laughing about it though and dad told her if she didn’t let me do it, she’d have to join the circus as the bearded lady.  LOL!  When I came out with the scissors after breakfast, she told me she’d rather pluck them herself, later.  I was like, no way, Grandma, there’s too many and it would hurt, I’m just gonna trim them off for you, now stop talking and be still so I don’t poke you with the scissors.  “Yes, mother, you’re awful bossy!” She said.  I bought some dry shampoo to wash and fix her hair on Saturday, too, but I didn’t catch her at the right time for that one, I guess, because she wouldn’t let me do it.  I decided to just let that one slide.  Oh well.  I did comb her hair both mornings when I was helping her in the bathroom, though.  That was kinda funny, too, because when she looked in the mirror, she did a double take (both mornings) like she didn’t recognize herself.  “Who’s that old womanIMG_8580eweb?” she asked…same thing both mornings.  One thing about a faulty memory, everything is fresh every day. 

IMG_8649ewebSaturday morning, after breakfast, Nate stayed with Grandma and Dad, KC, and I went out with KC’s phone GPS and spent all morning exploring downtown Rochester and finding some different thrift stores.  Didn’t really buy a whole lot, but we did take a nice hike through an IMG_8619ewebancient and HUGE graveyard!  Found some famous people’s graves…like Susan B Anthony.  KC was kinda disappointed, and I understood his confusion, because you have these graves of very famous people, and they are like very non-descript…and then 10 feet from it, you have this giant monument and statue for some unknown John Brown and you’re like, IMG_8631ewebreally?  There was lots of photo ops walking through the cemetery though…the leaves are in their peak up there and some of the graves were interesting.  I love stuff like that. 

I also got lots of pics while we were driving, too…I will probably put some of them on my photography page or on facebook maybe.  IMG_8582eweb

I took some where around 180 pictures on the trip.  That was fun…a good bit of them turned out pretty decent, too.  One thing that was challenging was IMG_8606eweb




having to use my 50mm fixed lens the entire time.  It’s a great lens, but it’s inconvenient at times when you’re trying to get wide angle shots.  Hey, I love a challenge, though, and I was pretty happy with the results, overall. 
 
Saturday afternoon, when we got back to Grandma’s, we did a little cleaning for her (washed the front windows, swept, vacuumed, mopped, bleached the sink, wiped down the counters and cabinets, cleaned off the tables and washed them, etc) and then watched musicals with her until everybody started getting there for her party.  IMG_8667eweb

Nate cooked boneless ribs and fish…awesomeness.  He makes me sick sometimes…lol…but then, that’s how it’s been as long as I can remember.  Way back in the day when I would burn a pot of water and he would throw together something random and it would taste great, I would despair of ever fixing anything edible…whoa…I’m off topic. 

Anyway.  We sang to her twice.  I forgot candles, so we just lit one large one of hers and she blew it out.  I think she was tickled that we were all there and did something for her like that because she seemed more like her old self than she had been. 

Here’s a few more of the pics:
IMG_8679ewebIMG_8671eweb
IMG_8670ewebIMG_8674eweb

Well, it was finally time to head home.  We had to get up at 3:55am on Sunday morning to get to the airport and return the rental car in time to catch our flight IMG_8698ewebat 6:50.  I have to say this about AirTran, they are PROMPT.  We had absolutely NO delays, and I think every single one of the flights was ahead of schedule…I’ve only flown a few times, but that’s the first time we’ve ever had that smooth of a trip. 

Now security in the little Rochester airport was another story.  I have to pause here and mention that I accidentally left a seam ripper in a forgotten pocket on my personal bag and found it in NY when I was trying to stuff all the stuff we were taking home back in the bags.  A SEAM RIPPER is like a deadly weapon…I can NOT believe I got it through Charlotte…that’s an INTERNATIONAL airport…hello!  Nobody said a word.  Well, I decided to leave it at Grandma’s so I wouldn’t take the chance of getting pulled at security flying home. 

We check in at the airport at 5am and I figure security will be a breeze…we’re not carrying anything dangerous and we made it through Charlotte with no problem, so no big deal.  All three of us ended up in different lines, but it’s okay, no sweat, shoes off, pockets emptied, jackets off, drop all my bags on the belt and send them through and go down to wait on my bags. 

Patiently waiting and then all of a sudden the guy pulls it off the belt and says, “Who’s bag is this?  Come with me!”  OH MY heavens.  So he opens it up and starts pulling everything out…”you have something dark in here,” he says.  HUH?  Keep in mind that coming home I have everything rolled as tightly as possible in order to fit everything we bought back into our luggage so it’s not just thrown in there and it’s almost impossible to put back that way in less than 30 seconds, so I’m kinda freaking out.  He pulls out my bag of gourmet coffee and then runs my bag through again.  Nope, pulled again.  This time he pulls out the library book I had finished and stowed out of the way in the bottom.  Okay, now I’m good and I have a pile of stuff and a half empty bag that I have to get it all stuffed back into…so they caught me…smuggling coffee and books.  Woohoo.  The funny thing is that KC went through with no prob and turned around to find me and Nate and we had BOTH gotten pulled to dig through our bags.  Nate had a suspicious looking camera lens.  ROFL!  So we got through security at the international airport with sharp objects and no problems and then at the non-international airport, we flag security with our coffee, books, and camera.  Okay then.  Glad I left that sharp seam ripper back at Grandma’s. 

To sum it all up, it was a fun trip, I was glad to see Grandma and spend some time with her, and flying was exciting, but I’m sure glad to be home! 

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Back On The Ground

Landed in Charlotte just now...woohoo! Can't wait to see our babies!! Will post more tomorrow.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Cheating

Blogging with my phone, limited text. Party for g-ma tonight. I think she enjoyed it...just family. Pics soon. :-)

Friday, October 22, 2010

Friday

My computer died (KC and I are sharing a power cord this trip, to lessen our luggage for the flights) so I haven’t uploaded any new pics or had time to get on and write or anything. 

Today we hit thrift stores and then came back and hung out with grandma.  She’s been a little ornery today.  This is the hard part of aging parents/grandparents…it’s like a second childhood and you have to be the adult instead…it’s sad.  The family is doing an 85th birthday dinner for her tomorrow night.  She told me she was going to be 78…she’s lost track of a few years.  She did remember all of us this time though. 

I have to hurry because KC and I are getting ready to run over to the store and pick up some ribs for Grandma’s birthday dinner tomorrow night.  I want to post this while we’re there, so I have to get moving…thanks for the comments on the last post, we’re definitely trying to have a good (especially since it might be the last) visit with Grandma. 

Hopefully will have pictures in the next post.  =)

Thursday, October 21, 2010

We’re Here!

IMG_8561ewebI feel like bullets tonight….so let’s seeeee….

  • Well, we made it up here, safe and sound.  Both flights were uneventful…
  • Survived the 3 hour layover in Baltimore, even without free wireless access (thank goodness I thought to bring a book!)
  • Notice in these two pictures that I’m the one smiling…the hubby and the brother were not so…IMG_8552eweb IMG_8560eweb   =)











  • Took forever to get a rental car when we got up here…I thought KC was going to blow a gasket…computer operator error and she was so not friendly…lol. 
  • IMG_8574ewebThen we got slightly turned around leaving the airport and drove a few extra miles around Rochester trying to get to Grandma’s. 
  • Spent the rest of the afternoon with Grandma while the guys (KC, Nate, Dad, and Uncle M) went out to pick up a few groceries. 
  • Nate and Dad cooked supper. 
  • I cleaned up.  Now I need lotion for my dishpan hands but thanks to airline security measures, I left all that at home so I wouldn’t get in any trouble.  LOL!
  • Now I’m writing this so we can run next door to the grocery cafe hot spot…I’d hate to miss a day after doing this good all month long…*grin*. 

And that’s it for tonight.  I’m off to go find that hotspot now.  Laterz!