New Lens

I have this friend (whom I will not name) who admittedly is not happy for people when they get new stuff, especially fun gadget-y (I totally made that word up, huh?) stuff.  Ya know, computers, cameras, lenses.  Yes, all the stuff that I really like getting.  I totally respect the fact that she openly admits her jealousy!!!

So recently it was my birthday, and I was getting new stuff (namely a new lens), so I had to rub it in a little.  Sorry!!

But, it turns out to have bitten me in the butt a little.  You see, I ordered this lens to begin with:

Its a Tamron 28-75 mm, f/2.8.  I wanted it for a number of reasons: 1) fairly wide at the bottom end, and I’ve been wanting a wider angle; 2) zoom; 3) fixed aperture on a zoom!  If your not understanding #3, it just means the f-stop can stay the same no matter the distance you’re zooming.  And, if you’re shooting in manual mode, this is such an advantage since you don’t have to change your settings each time you change your focal length.

So I got the lens in the day before my birthday.  Actually the night before my birthday, and I tried it out in my dark house. . .  Ugh!  I really did not like it at all.  Love the fact that it was a zoom w/ a fixed aperture, but didn’t love that the widest the aperture could go was f/2.8.  That just does not let in enough light for my dark house (even in the daytime).

So I did an online return, and within about 5 minutes ordered a Sigma 30mm, f/1.4.  I knew I would love the 1.4 since that’s the same aperture as my 50mm.  Would let in lots of light!  Was excited for it to be delivered a couple days later (gotta love an Amazon Prime trial which often qualifies for free overnight or 2-day shipping).

Got the lens a couple evenings later.  The family went to bed, and I stayed up to play with my new lens.  Got it out of the box in such anticipation of how nice it would be.  Started to put it on my camera….. uh oh.  Oh crap!  Somehow (and I have NO IDEA how) I had ordered the Canon version. . .I shoot Nikon.  Ugh!

So I did the whole online return which was becoming extremely familiar territory by now.  Took both -wrong- lenses to the UPS store to ship back, and my new CORRECT lens came in the next day.

And, yep, I love it!

You wouldn’t believe how close I was standing to Sadie taking this one:

I’m sure you’ll be seeing lots more shots using this lens! 

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Memory-Keeping Fail

Okay, I’ll make a deal with you:  You put up w/ me making excuses and such for my lack of photographic consistency for just this one more post, and I’ll spare you from it from here on out.  Deal?  Deal!

So, yeah, I’m kinda failing at the whole memory-keeping thing.  We had a church function at our lake house two weekends ago and I did take photos for that.  However, I didn’t even pull the camera out for my husband’s side of the family Family Reunion this past Saturday.  Totally should have taken pictures, but didn’t.  Also didn’t take even one picture for Father’s Day — not one of my Dad, not one of Joe Michael and the kids, nothing.  Ugh!  And, last Friday, the day before the family reunion, the older kids went offshore fishing with Joe Michael and one of his friends who has a little boy Wesley’s age (and they are good little friends from school).  Didn’t take any pictures of that…..  well, at least I had an excuse for that — my camera battery was dead.  Thankfully the little boy’s Dad took some pictures and sent them to us.

So, I’ve been filling in the blanks again and I’ll update for you:

162/365:  Wes playing with a water gun (before having it taken away because of shooting people who didn’t want to be shot) at the church gathering at the lake ~

163/365:  Joe Michael, his sister, Shana, and their dad, Mike ~

164/365:  Sadie posing in her “boots” ~

165/365:  Wes showing off his latest Lego building ~

166/365:  My sister, Heather, and I on our birthday, just before enjoying a delish dinner at Carabba’s – YUMMMO!  ~

167/365:  Sadie posing on the front step for me while I was trying out my new lens (which I sent back the next day).  I’ll save that story for another post.  ~

168/365:  Claire & Joe Michael posing with a Red Snapper.  All three kids (and the grown-ups too) had a blast and caught lots of fish!  Claire even caught more than her brother! ~

 

169/365:  All of us enjoying one of the less-muddy ponds around our lake at our family reunion (I borrowed/stole this from an aunt who took some pics on her phone) ~

So, that’s all for now.  Hope to blog again soon, but I promise to not bore you with any more “I’m-not-doing-this-P365-thing-well-enough” kind of posts! 

We just got home from the lake a little bit ago and the kids will be off to their grandparents’ house for the night in a bit.  I’ll be going to worship band practice and then will enjoy the rest of my evening with my hubby.

Have a great Tuesday!

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Starting to Wonder

I’m starting to wonder if I’m going to cheat my way through the whole summer with this P365 stuff.    There was about a week at the beginning of this month, where I barely picked up my camera.

I’ve filled in the days now with other pictures I’ve since taken, but it is cheating.  Oh well!  My project, my way! 

Part of the reason I haven’t taken many pictures is because we haven’t been doing a lot.  Well, that’s not true.  It seems that it comes in spurts.  When we are busy, it doesn’t seem convenient to take pictures.  When we’re not busy, it doesn’t seem like there’s anything interesting enough going on to take pictures of.

Anyway, here’s a bit of (another) update:

Sadie wrapped in her towel just after her bath…

Summer days are often spent in bathing suits…all day long…

My sweet baby girl in pigtails (isn’t she looking like such a big girl these days?)…

Summer days can also be lazy days.  They can include sleeping late (yeah, right!) and curling up in the living room watching movies…

Wes & Claire started sailing lessons this week.  They were not completely thrilled with the idea at first.  But they loved it after just the first day.  They go for 4 hours in the mornings, this week and next…

“Abba Dabba”…

Ready for another day of sailing lessons (with his new life vest on)…

Also, ready for another day of sailing lessons…and feeling sassy, hehe!…

You can never tell what mood this girl is going to wake up in.  Sometimes she a total grouch, but today she was pleasant…

On that note, I’m outta here.  Gotta run a few errands while I only have one kiddo in tow.    Have a great Thursday!

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Been a While

I know it’s been a long while since I last posted.  Things got busy with school ending, etc.

Here’s an update of some P365.  Some of these photos on not on the actual day, but they represent the right time frame in the life of our family, so I’m justifying it that way! 

Day 136: The flowers in our yard this Spring have been so beautiful!

Day 137: In about a total of 90 seconds of me blow-drying my hair, Sadie did this in her brother’s room with markers not labeled “washable”.  Thankfully after a little while playing in the bathtub, it all came off.  She was very proud of it, though!

Day 138:  Daddy and his sweet girl!

Day 139:  Claire’s Kindergarten graduation.  Each class sang one song, then they sang one all together.  They also got their scrapbooks.  It was adorable, and I can’t believe my little girl will now be in 1st grade!

Day 140: Today was a 1/2 day at school, and we decided the previous afternoon to go to the lake to stay the night.  So it didn’t take much convincing for the kids to think it was okay to “skip” the last 1/2 day of school.  Instead, Daddy took all three into town to run a few errands, one of which was going to our friend’s house and getting Claire’s hair cut.  Our friend, Barbara, did such a beautiful job, and Claire was so sassy with that hair the rest of the weekend!

Day 141: Up at the lake, Wes spent quite a bit of time designing a campground.  You would even believe how detailed this thing is.  I got a picture of it here, but he later colored it.  It was really incredible!

Day 142:  Sweet sisters!

Day 143 & 144:  I took the kiddos down to our backyard beach while Sadie was napping.  They had a good time digging in the sand and playing around in the water.

Day 145:  The older two had Vacation Bible School this week in the evenings.  I took this photo of all three one afternoon before they went.  They had such a great time at VBS!!!

Day 146:  Sadie had swimming lessons this week.  I wouldn’t necessarily say she’s a swimmer at this point, but she did very well and had such a great time.  She really loved Miss Lyn!

Day 147:  The cousins came up to the lake to play for a few hours.  Here’s Chandler ready to go tubing!  (Never was able to get a pic of Danielle. :-< )

Day 148:  I’m so terrified of rattlesnakes at the lake right now.  Hubby killed one a couple weekends ago that was almost 5 feet long.  This -now headless- pigme rattlesnake (which I explained to the kids is just as deadly as a big one) was resting in the shade under the tractor in the path that my kids run down all the time, barefooted, to go swim down at the lake. Seriously, this whole snake thing has made me lose some sleep.  Ugh!

Day 149: May 30th was mine and hubby’s 13th Anniversary!!!  Gosh that makes us sound old!  My parents kept our kids the night before, so we drove over to Destin and had a really nice dinner at PF Changs (YUMMO!) and got a few fun little things (nice sunglasses for me; swim/fish shorts for hubby) at Bass Pro Shop.  Then we drove back to the lake for the night.

Day 150:  This is our anniversary.  My parents were still keeping the kiddos for the day, so we just enjoyed the day at the lake together.  Our sweet neighbors brought us breakfast, which is kinda turning into tradition.  Hubby has made it for them for their last two anniversaries, and now they’re returning the favor; and it was SO DELISH!  Throughout the day, we relaxed and/or worked separately some (I’ll let you figure out who did what), and then also went 4-wheeling, golf-cart riding, and jet-skiing together.  It was a really nice day.  Here’s hubby on the tractor (just after killing the snake that was under it), doing some work around the property.

So, while it’s been a busy few weeks, it’s also been really good!

Hope to be back soon and not be gone so long next time!

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Nice Weekend

We decided to spend Friday night up at the lake.  Big surprise, right?  Actually, it’s been a while since we stayed up there.  We’ve been a little busy, ya know. 

We thought we were going to have some friends come stay with us Friday night and hang with us on Saturday, but that ended up not working out, so it was just the 5 of us, relaxing in the beautiful weather.

And by beautiful, I mean it RAINED Friday night and Saturday morning.  I’m not even being sarcastic about the “beautiful” part.  It was like heaven hearing the rain fall on the tin roof and the thunder rolling outside as I was somewhere between asleep and awake Saturday morning – pure bliss!

Also, our wonderful lake that we enjoyed swimming, jet-skiing, tubing, and knee-boarding in last Summer has gone down so much, due to lack of rain, that it is almost 3 little ponds now.  Sad!  So we are thankful for every little bit of rain we get!

One new thing about this weekend at the lake was that Sadie no longer has a crib there.  The friend we borrowed it from needed it back, and since we’re getting ready to transition Sadie to a big-girl bed anyway (WAAAHHH!) we didn’t even consider trying to find another.  So she slept in the room with Claire.

Apparently, she was talking a little and said something about a “big scary monster”, so Claire got in the bed with her.  But being that Sadie has never really slept with anyone in her bed before, this proved to only be a bigger distraction.  So I had Claire move back to her own bed, and after a few minutes, both girls were off to dreamland.

…..until around 2:30 when, apparently, Claire came in our room to tell her Daddy that Sadie was awake and talking.  So he went in there and laid down on her bed with her thinking he’d get her back to sleep…..um no, same effect as Claire in bed with her.  She was patting him and talking to him, etc.  So he went out of the room and told her to go back to sleep….and she did!

So, for her first official night in a big-girl bed, I’d say it was a success.  I was a little more nervous about her napping in there, since that’s the room where the toys are kept and with it being daylight, she could see them easier.  But she did fine.  Here is a picture of her napping on her big-girl bed at the lake:

(P365 – Day 134)

Hubby spent day trying to straighten up our lake beach and get it swimable (probably not a real word, huh?).  The older two were down there with him swimming.  I spent the day (while Sadie was napping) catching up on some P365 layouts.  They’re not quite ready yet, but I’ll be sure to show them off when they are.  I’m trying very hard to catch up.

Saturday afternoon, we came back home.  We had a babysitter coming and plans to go out (KIDLESS!!!) with some friends.  We ate at Carabba’s (can you just say “yummo!”) and spent a little time chatting and people-watching with some frappucinno’s at Pier Park.  It was a great night.

Sunday was church. We had another great turnout.  One thing that’s going really well is that most people aren’t just rushing out after the service is finished.  They’re staying and hanging out, “fellowshiping”, and just getting to know each other — which is really a wonderful thing!!

After church we went to lunch with some family and other church ‘folk’.  The kids had fun sitting together and chatting it up while the ‘grown-ups’ did the same at the other end of the table.  Here’s a pic (crappy phone pic, but a pic none-the-less) of all the kiddos before we left:

(P365 – Day 135)

The kiddos went to their grandparents and the hubby and I had a nice Sunday afternoon nap.  It was a good weekend!

Hope yours was good as well!

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Wow…

It’s nearing a month since I last posted.  Gosh, it’s been a crazy month, but it’s good stuff.  Thankfully, we haven’t really dealt with sick children or anything.  We’ve just been busy with school (school year is quickly nearing an end, so seems to be busier), baseball, and starting a church.

Haha, I wrote “starting a church” like it was just something else on the schedule, no big deal.  Of course, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.  It’s been a huge deal.

We “launched” (that’s the lingo, ya know, with church “plants” [also lingo, haha]) on Easter Sunday.  I knew there would be a ton of people there.  We had all invited friends and family.  And we had a great turnout…I mean, really, really great…like 175 people great!  I said on FaceBook that we would never be one of those churches who’s focus is on the numbers, but that having that many people there on the first day was really incredible!

We knew that a lot of the people who came were there to support us.  A few came from out of town, many had their own churches already, etc.  So we were very aware that we would not have the same turnout the following week.  We said we’d be happy with half that number the second week……and that’s what we had, a little more than half!

So, it’s been a really great start!  This Sunday will be our 4th Sunday, so we’re starting to get into our groove.  We’ve learned a lot so far, and know there will be so much more to learn.  It’s all really exciting!

So that’s what’s consumed our lives for this past month.  Whew!

I’ll admit I haven’t kept up with my P365 as well as I had planned.  I did a whole post on that on the Sweet Shoppe blog (HERE if you have any interest in reading about it).  Anyway, I’ve filled in the gaps with appropriate photos (stuff that was happening in our lives, just the photo may have been taken a day late or whatever) and I’m all caught up.  You can click on that second page link, right up in my menu bar, just under my header, to see all my P365 photos.

But I’ll leave you with today’s photo:

(taken with my phone camera)

Today, Wesley’s class had a Mother’s Day Tea for all the Mommies!  Yes, I realize Mother’s Day was last Sunday, but the prior Friday, the day for which the Mother’s Day Tea was originally planned, turned out to be Field Day.  So we got Mother’s Day twice!  It was a really sweet time with my boy!

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Whew!

I feel like the past few weeks have just run together.  Between sick kids the previous two weeks (thank the Lord, everyone is well right now) and getting ready to launch our church, I have a hard time remembering what day it is – haha!

I will tell you this, if this (starting a church) wasn’t a God-thing it would be just absolutely insane to try to take something like this on.  But it’s going well, and we’re really, really excited about Sunday!!

I’ll quickly catch up a little on P365:

(Day 104: Sadie having fun playing at home)

(Day 105: My Friday me-photo.  Enjoying some much-needed time at the lake)

(Day 106: Just a beautiful photo from the lake.  This is actually the little road that leads to our property.)

(Day 107:  Well, “hello” double/triple chin.  Nice to meet you.  I think I’ll need to do something about you at some point, like maybe work out or something.          So, this was the hubby and I on Sunday afternoon before going to a friend’s surprise birthday party at a gorgeous beach house.)

(Day 108:  My wonderful Claire.  Ya know, I almost like this picture because she doesn’t look completely perfect in it.  Most pictures I take of her are just, wow.  Don’t get me wrong, I still think she’s absolutely gorgeous in this picture, but it just makes her look a little more like the rest of us.  )

(Day 109:  My Wes.  Today was “Spirit Day” at school, so they could wear these spirit t-shirts, rather than their normal collared uniform shirts.  They think this is a very special thing!)

(Day 110:  My oldest and youngest sitting together, cheering on their favorite American Idols.)

(Day 11:  Today was Sadie’s little Easter party at her school.  She was supposed to wear yellow and bring her Easter basket and some eggs to add to the hunt.  She looked adorable and had lots of fun!)

Okay, that catches me up!  Be back soon, or, well, at some point! 

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Getting There

Well, my last post told you about how sick Sadie has been.  Her fever broke Friday night and she seemed to be on the mend.  She definitely felt better Saturday morning — she was playing and seeming happy.

We spent a bit of the day working at the church, cleaning, setting up, checking sound, etc.

Well, hubby spent all day there, the two older kids spent part of the day there until their Grandmomma took them to her house to get them out of the way, and Sadie and I were there until she really needed to go home for a nap.  But it’s looking really good in there.  And it was ready to go for Sunday’s service.

Sunday, Sadie seemed to be even a little better, but she still had diarrhea and it was hurting her behind.  I know that’s gross, but it’s just a reality; and when it makes your baby scream bloody murder, it’s awful!

But we went to church, had a great service, had a great time out at lunch with some friends.  We came home and rested, as we were all really tired.

When we woke up we were ready to go again, and get some more things done for the church.  That morning, the program I was attempting to use (mostly to save money) for presentation software (you know, to project the lyrics to the songs, scripture, etc.), proved why it’s the cheaper option.  It shut down on me….twice.  Ugh!  And the laptop (my old HP I used before getting my Mac) was acting up just as badly.  Something had to be done.  So we took a little trip to one of the best stores on earth (Best Buy — so much yumminess in there!) and purchased a new little friend…

Now we have a new (NICE) computer to work with and can get the software we really need (and the one we wanted in the first place but didn’t want to have to spend so much money for to get cross-platform usage).  Woohoo!

Today has been an okay day.  I’ve done a lot of computer/administrative work for the church.  But it feels good getting stuff accomplished and getting it marked off the list.  I promise to write a whole post about all of this sometime, but to make it short and sweet now, we’re launching on Easter Sunday —— less than 2 weeks away!  So we have a lot to get ready.  It’s both exciting and scary!

Sadie was still having issues today, so it actually was a good day to just hang out at home and take care of things here.

When the older two came home from school, they quickly did their homework and went outside to play.  It’s gorgeous out there, but it’s already feeling like Summer!  They came in after a while and played in Wes’ room.  Wes is usually the one who builds elaborate things with his Legos, but today, Claire built something she was really excited about:

She built this “car” and insisted that I take a picture of it like I do sometimes when her brother builds things.  Hehe!  So cute!  She was really proud of it!

Well, I’m just praying that Sadie continues to get better.  I’m going to keep her home from preschool again tomorrow.  I just can’t send her while she’s still having “issues.”  So, if you think of her, please say a little prayer that she’ll completely recover sooner rather than later.  Thanks!

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Week From…, Pt. 2

So we had a nice, normal Tuesday night, everything fine.  Then came Wednesday.

I woke up Wednesday morning with a terrible migraine.  Most of the time when I get a migraine it’s a sinus headache turned very very bad.  This one, however, did not stem from sinuses, it was just a bad migraine.  I felt terrible all day long and took a nap that afternoon.

(Day 96)

The older two kids played very sweetly and quietly while I rested, and Wes built the “castle” you see above.  The headache didn’t go away during my nap, so I was really looking forward to bedtime when I could get some deep sleep and get rid of this migraine.

Sadie was doing her nightime breathing treatment and all of a sudden, you guessed it, she had her own ‘episode’.  Vomit. everywhere. disgusting.  So we get her cleaned up and in the bathtub, hubby gets the chair cleaned up, and I know I am not going to get the rest I need that night to get rid of my migraine.

Sadie threw up a couple times during the night and was just miserable, feeling terrible.  She’s so sweet though, especially when you have to get her up in the middle of the night.  She just waited patiently for me to change her sheets, etc.  Such a precious baby.

By Thursday morning, my migraine had still not gone away.  And Thursday Sadie felt rotten all day too.  She threw up in the car a couple times while taking the older two to school (yuck!).  And she threw up at home.  After finishing one time, she just laid her head on my shoulder and immediately fell asleep.  I only tried giving her water on Thursday, but she didn’t keep any of it or any meds (tylenol for fever) down.

I really hate when people use FB as just a place to complain, so I try not to do that.  But I posted a little complaint about how this was one of the suckiest weeks I’ve had in a long time.  I almost didn’t post it, then I did.  One of the friends who commented with encouragement is a friend I know only online, from digital scrapbooking.  She and I have been in this about the same amount of time and have been acquaintances in a lot of the same forums during that time.  She’s one of those people whom I know I would be close friends with if we lived near each other or had we grown up together.  She’s about my age I think, a Godly woman, a mother (adopted two precious children from Korea), loves her family, etc.    …..She found out last week that the mass in her stomach, which had been causing stomach issues for the past couple of months, was actually stage 3 ovarian cancer.  She had an extensive surgery last week to remove it which ended up being a lot more extensive than they originally anticipated (read: worse), and she was only able to see her children maybe twice during the week she was in the hospital….    Who am I to complain about my issues and inconveniences when they absolutely pale in comparison to what she and her family are going through?  Talk about perspective.  And she was offering me encouragement…perspective.

By that evening, Sadie kept a little juice and some medicine down, so I thought we were turning a corner.  And, thank You Lord, my migraine was gone!

(Day 97)

She went to bed fine, but woke up once or twice during the night sick again.  This morning I was sure she was going to be better, so I made the horrible mistake of giving her a sippy cup with a little milk.  Can I just say that there is almost nothing worse to clean up than curdled, thrown-up milk – ewwwww!

So she threw up in the car and also when we got back home.  She was also very hot to the touch.  I didn’t take her temp, but I knew she was fevered, and she was pretty much not wanting to take meds.

I called the doctor’s office and got some advice from the nurse.  They said I could give her emetrol and they called in a prescription for her.  I also got some chewable tylenol and ibuprofen and she took one of those.  All of those meds have seemed to do the trick and she’s been resting since around 1:00 p.m.  I took her temperature which came out normal, if the new ear thermometer I got is accurate.  So I’m thankful for that.

(Day 98)

It’s been a tough week.  In the midst of all of the kids’ illnesses and my 2-day migraine, I’ve been trying to build a website for our new church.  Let me just say, I only thought I was computer/web/tech savvy.  This made me feel like a moron.  But I finally did it and completed it and while there are a few things that need to be fixed (once I learn how to fix them), I am really proud of it!  I’ll write another post about all of the church stuff, but if you’d like to check out the website, here’s the address:  http://christchurchpc.net/

Have a great weekend!

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Week From You-Know-Where, Pt. 1

Wow – have you ever had one of these weeks?  Of course you have, we all have.

I’m not one to go around blaming the devil for every little bad thing that happens every day.  But I can honestly say he’s been out to get my family this week.  Maybe it’s because of where we’re doing for the other side!    (more on that later)

So, this past week started at the lake Sunday morning…

(Day 93: Picture of the wall on our porch of the lake house.  We have friends and family sign their name and date when they visit, just like people did for decades at my husband’s family’s old shack that used to sit on the property next door.  We love this tradition!)

So we got ready Sunday morning at the lake and came back into town for a gathering for the new church (there will have to be a whole separate post for this topic).  After church we went out for lunch.  Claire seemed off but not really sick.  She said her stomach hurt a little, didn’t want to eat her lunch, but didn’t feel fevered or anything.  Wes had a birthday party to attend, so she and Sadie went to Grandmomma and Grandaddy’s house for the afternoon.  Poor Claire threw up in Grandmomma’s car on the way home (yeah, poor Grandmomma too.).  After that episode, she seemed fine the rest of the afternoon and night.  Sadie, however, coughed the entire night long.

Monday morning, Claire said her stomach hurt a little again, but not bad enough to stay home from school.  So I took the older two to school and not 15 minutes after arriving back home, the school called saying I needed to come check Claire out because she threw up.

I got on the phone w/ the doctor’s office and made arrangements to bring both girls in after I picked up Claire.  The doctor checked Claire for strep – negative.  Said it must just be a stomach bug, and there was nothing we could do about it.  Sadie had an ear infection, so she prescribed some antibiotics for that, plus ordered refills for her regular “asthma” meds.  Girls seemed fine after that, mostly played and watched some TV….

(Day 94)

…until we went to pick up Wes from school and Claire had another…episode…in the car.  Thankfully, I learned my lesson a few months back when Wes threw up all in the backseat of the van and I had to clean the nastiness out.  So we were prepared w/ a bowl in which to catch the…episode.

No more episodes after that, but Claire still couldn’t go to school on Tuesday because of their 24-hour rule.  Sadie seemed much better, so she was able to go to school on Tuesday.  It was picture day, so we made her look just slightly more adorable than usual…

(Day 95:  This is her “cheese!” face – ugh!    She was wearing a little dress with leggings that used to be Claire’s.  If you asked her what was on her dress she would tell you, excitedly, “tinkle, tinkle, how I wonju”, which translates into “twinkle, twinkle…….how I wonder what you are”, which translates into…there were stars on her dress.)

…to be continued…

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