Stacey's PAD

2-23-09

2009-02-24T12:40:00.001-06:00

2-23-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

This is Willow. She's too funny. When she found out I'd be taking her pictures, she told her mom (my best friend) that she wanted me to take a picture of her "crazy eyes." They are beautiful eyes, but certainly crazy when she wants them to be!!

2/21/09

2009-02-23T12:33:00.001-06:00

IMG_0051, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

This is from my first session of 2009. This little guy is just took stinking cute! My weekend was so busy with a ton of other stuff that I just did not have time to take a single other picture! But, I think this guy is cute enough for 2 days' worth!

2-08-09

2009-02-20T15:42:00.003-06:00

2-08-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

This is out of order because I forgot about it in my posting frenzy to get caught up! Yeah! I didn't miss as many days as I thought!

This is Emily and her boyfriend. He lives in Nebraska, over 600 miles away. It's a nice, safe distance. He has family here. That's how they met. He was here visiting. Well, his cousin had a baby, and her sister came to visit. Eli hitched along. The kids were thrilled to get to see each other. Emily went on her very first one on one date. We also got to spend quite a bit of time with him, getting to know him some. He's a pretty good kid. People in our generation are very skeptical of long distance relationships in teens. However, it's very different today than it was for us. Cell phones with unlimited minutes, Facebook, email.... all of these things ensure that they are virtually with each other constantly. They plan to get married, of course (didn't we all when we were 16?). They are both pretty mature kids for their age. I think they actually have a chance of making it work. Only time will tell.

Oh, and unrelated to the content of the image.... I found a plug-in for Lightroom that allows me to place a graphic watermark! Woo hoo! This was my first image to try this on. I haven't been watermarking my images because it was a giant extra step of opening them in Photoshop to do it. Now it just happens automatically when I export. I love me some Lightroom!!!

2-20-09

2009-02-20T15:37:00.003-06:00

2-2-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

Hubby has decided to grow a full beard. He's had a goatee for several years. The other day, I noticed he shaved his throat but not his face. He said he was just being lazy. I told him a full beard might look good. He scoffed. But now, apparently, he's giving it a shot. I guess I'll be documenting the growth every few days. I think he looks quite handsome in this shot.

2-18-09

2009-02-20T15:32:00.003-06:00

2-18-09a, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

This is a rose I got from a friend. A woman friend. It's all ok. I took several of the rose and couldn't pick between these two, so I'm put them both up. I really like how they made a heart with the greenery.

2-17-09

2009-02-20T15:29:00.002-06:00

2-17-09a, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

I know, I know. De ja vue, right? Well, Olivia wanted her hair cut, too, so we've got the same, before and after today of her. Her loss wasn't quite so dramatic. They both want it shorter and more sculpted. I can't do that, so we will head into a professional next week.

2-15-09

2009-02-20T15:23:00.004-06:00

2-15-09a, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

I have two pictures today. Hannah wanted her hair cut short. This is a before and after, taken in front of the mirror so you can see how long it was. We got 11 inches and I think that's enough to send to Locks of Love.

2-14-09

2009-02-20T15:23:00.001-06:00

2-14-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

I spend so much more time with my two youngest because they aren't in school yet. Today, I took a shot of one of my older kids. Well, I took shots of all of them, but Jonah won the spot on the blog because he was the only one without crumbs all over his face, since these were done during after school snack.

2-12-09

2009-02-20T15:21:00.001-06:00

2-12-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

Missed a couple more days! Argh!!! I will NOT give up!

We went to the library today. Olivia really enjoyed playing with this puppet theater.

2-09-09

2009-02-20T15:20:00.001-06:00

2-09-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

This is where it gets dicey. I've missed a couple of days.

Remember our moody fridge? This is Tom, trying to see if he can get to the fan to unblock it. He was not able. Needs a star screw driver. Have to go buy one.

2-06-09

2009-02-20T15:19:00.001-06:00

2-06-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

This is "I'm tired, it's late, I just want to go to bed." I left this mess for the morning.

2-05-09

2009-02-20T15:18:00.001-06:00

2-05-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

This isn't the best shot as my guy was not in a terribly cooperative mood. But, I had to get a shot of his new tooth. The front (his) right is a cap. He put a pretty good sized chip in his tooth last year. It was just a chip so we didn't worry about it. But, lately we noticed that it was eroding away so decided we needed to do something about it. We took him in and they used the same stuff they use to put that coating over molars for school aged kids (can't think what it's called now). They filled a mold, put the mold up on his tooth, waited a minute or two for it to set, removed the mold and voila! A new tooth!!

2-04-09b

2009-02-20T15:16:00.001-06:00

2-04-09b, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

So, I didn't have a picture yesterday, so I am posting two for today. This is the door that goes from our garage to the back yard. The window is divided into 12 of these tiles. The frost was so pretty on the window that I had to take a shot.

2-04-09

2009-02-20T15:15:00.001-06:00

2-04-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

This was such a funny sight. As I mentioned, it's been very cold. As I was taking the kids to school this morning, I noticed all these birds huddled together on this roof. There had to be at least 50 of them all together. This is just a small bit of them. I wanted to get the details and pretty colors of the birds, so opted for a closer up shot that didn't show the scope of roof coverage.

2-02-09

2009-02-20T15:13:00.001-06:00

2-02-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

This is my very moody fridge. There is a fan that keeps getting stuck. We thought it might be frozen and so emptied it out to let it defrost. It worked for a week after this, then started flipping out, jumping from 34 to 50 degrees and back again, several times throughout the day. Thank goodness it's been cold enough out that we could use our garage as a fridge.

2-01-09

2009-02-20T15:12:00.001-06:00

2-01-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

Super Bowl Sunday!! We had people over and watched the game on the big screen. And what a game it was! I don't think I've ever been on the edge of my seat for a professional football game before. This one was incredible. Both teams fought hard for the win and either of them would have deserved it. This shot is what my girls did to prepare for our party. Emily, 16, made a 7-layer dip. It was delicious. Hannah, 10, made some very rich and yummy chocolate cookies.

Great fun was had by all.

1-31-09

2009-02-20T15:09:00.001-06:00

1-31-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

This is at our church. Every Friday night, there is Junior High Oasis. I volunteer as a chaperon once a month.I like this shot because you can see two levels of things going on. That's the snack bar on the bottom. In the balcony above is a ping pong game. There are booths all along the sides below and above are a host of other games, including air hockey, Xbox/Playstation/Wii video games (guitar hero is a favorite). It's a really cool facility and a great way for kids to invite friends to visit church. They get to hang out, play and eat and mid way through, there is a short church service. I'm really glad to be a part of this ministry.

1-30-09

2009-01-31T11:32:00.001-06:00

1-30-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

This is at the indoor playground at our church (as was yesterday's). We have these giant lego tables. My kids love to play with the legos. The added benefit is that Ian can't climb in or out on his own, so I can put him in there if I need him to be contained for a minute and he plays happily, but can't run away. This is a hard place to take photos. You can't really tell, but the light in here is terrible. Shutter speed was 1/40 at an ISO of 400. Plus, the exposure was bumped 3/4 a stop in PP. Thank goodness for RAW!

1-29-09

2009-01-31T11:28:00.001-06:00

1-29-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

I've seen this merry go round shot done and I love it. But, again, I only had my phone with me. And, this is an indoor playground, so I have low lighting plus trying to get the background blurred out - which is, of course, impossible when I have no control over settings, like on a camera phone. But you get the idea. I'll have to go back with my actual camera and do it, hopefully when my guy isn't so grumpy.

1-28-09

2009-01-31T11:25:00.002-06:00

1-28-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

We got more snow! I really enjoy the snow. I think it's so pretty. This was a particularly pretty one coming down. We got a lot. I think about 6 inches. Bonus shot shows how high it piled on our patio table.

1-27-09

2009-01-31T11:23:00.001-06:00

1-27-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

This is Emily. She is my high schooler. She is working on home work. She's the best teenager on the planet, I'm convinced. Straight A student, planning on going into ministry, and we have the best relationship. We spent her first 4 years just the two of us. My husband and I married just 3 months before she turned 5. She doesn't have a relationship with her bio-father, so my husband is her dad. They get along really well, too....now. It was rough going for the first several years, but all of that's behind us now and she's turned out just fine.

1-26-09

2009-01-31T11:20:00.001-06:00

1-26-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

I wimped out and didn't cook dinner tonight. Instead, I went to Burger King. My oldest was craving a certain sandwich from there. Turns out, they were out of the main ingredient that made this sandwich so special. But, the other kids were happy because they got kids' meals. This was in them. It's a Cabbage Patch doll. Remember those? Well, of course, kids always want to know what toys "do" these days. Jonah, my oh so creative speaker said, "You are supposed to fashion her hair." I thought that was cute and funny, so decided I needed to blog about it.

1-25-09

2009-01-31T11:17:00.001-06:00

1-25-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

I was visiting someone's house today and they live out in the country. They are near a tree line and have several bird feeders set up. I didn't have my real camera with me, so had to rely on my phone. At one point there were about a dozen birds on one feeder and they were adorable little things that I think were warblers.. In the trees were cardinals. If I got close enough to the window to grab a shot with my phone, they flew away. I'd pretty much given up, but then, when I left, this is what I walked out onto the porch to see. It had showed quite a bit while I was there, and there were all these cute little bird foot prints on the porch. So, I snapped a quick shot. My day turned long and I didn't get another chance to pick up my camera, so this is my shot for the day.

1-24-09

2009-01-31T11:04:00.003-06:00

1-24-09-2, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

I don't do mornings. But, this morning, I had to get up early because I was taking pictures at my daughter's high school for the cheer competition. I noticed the sky looked really pretty, so I grabbed a shot.
Bonus photo for today, this is the squad that won the competition. They were awesome!! I'm glad they won. They deserved it. This is not my daughter's high school, but it is her high school from last year (we moved) so she was glad they won, too.

1-23-09

2009-01-23T19:03:00.001-06:00

1-23-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

Dinner tonight! What else do you fix when it's been a long day and you didn't get any meat out of the freezer? Six pizzas feeds us all for only $7.50. That's a bargain!!

1-22-09

2009-01-23T19:01:00.002-06:00

1-22-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

I love water. I tried the water drop thing at the beginning and I have wanted to try again. That was inside. This was outside. I was down in Amish country getting fresh milk (yum!). It was in the 40s and all the snow that was hanging out on top of the milk house was melting and making these puddles along the sidewalk. I could see the ripples and drops and all from a distance, so I got out my camera and tried to get something I really liked. This one is fun. The drop has fallen, and the resulting spiky thing that comes up has already gone back down. But it created all these little drops. The sun was shining and it's just a fun and sparkly water shot. The Amish woman in the house probably thought I was nuts, practically laying on the ground to get low enough. But I'm happy with the shot. If you want to see all the great detail, click on it to go to my flickr and then check it out full sized.

1-21-09

2009-01-21T20:32:00.003-06:00

1-21-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

Nothing technically spectacular about this picture at all, unless you're a Lost fan. I've been waiting for many long months for this episode. I had Hubby set up the big screen so Emily and I can watch the premiere on in style. That's the fire place to camera left, in case you want some scale. He's going to get her from church now so we can watch. I'm so excited!!!

1-20-09

2009-01-21T20:20:00.001-06:00

1-20-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

This is my guy again. This is a favorite activity of his. When ever I even hint at maybe doing some cooking, he gets all excited and says, "Stir!" in his really cute 2 year old way. Sounds more like "der" with a really, really hard "d" sound. I know, I know. It looks dangerous. But I'm usually standing right with him. I just stood back to take this shot and it was a one time deal. Plus, he's a pretty bright kid and if I tell him something is hot, he avoids whatever that thing is. He's never been burned, but has taken bites that were too hot for him, so he knows hot. As for sitting on the counter, well he does that all the time. None of us can do anything without him asking to sit up so he can watch and help. He's never fallen, although he did dive off once. He wasn't hurt at all by it. Guess those instincts for a proper landing are strong in him.

1-19-09

2009-01-21T20:17:00.001-06:00

1-19-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

This is my sometimes sweet and always cute little guy. That's a bruise he got from bumping his head into a plate. Yes, a plate. He has hemophilia. This means his blood is missing a clotting factor. So, when he has a normal bonk of some kind, that breaks some of those tiny vessels under the skin, he bleeds for a long time out of them, causing really ugly and painful looking (although not feeling) bruises. This one on his head came at the tail end of another that was just about healed up. It was off on his left, so you can't really see it here.

For processing, I played with some Lightroom presets. They're fun. I like to play.

1-18-09

2009-01-19T15:56:00.001-06:00

1-18-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

This is what my back yard looked like this morning. The wind had blown all night and it was really cold. So there were all of these tiny little drifts and a thin layer of hard, frozen stuff. It was really shiny, too.

1-17-09

2009-01-19T15:55:00.001-06:00

1-17-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

It was the end of the day and I had yet to take a picture. We were at church doing communion prep again. In the kitchen were all of these utensils hanging. I thought they looked pretty cool, so they ended up staring in my shot for today.

1-16-09

2009-01-16T19:13:00.003-06:00

1-16-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

Adventures in International Travel....Without even leaving the country.

Emily is going on a mission trip in July. It's great and exciting. She's been saving money to help pay for it, and making plans for fund raisers. She received some cash for Christmas and decided that she would use that to get her passport. Those things are $100! Can you believe it? Well, anyway, she had it and they didn't have school today, so I decided we'd get this done today since we could go to the post office and everything. First order a business? A picture. That is my picture for the day. Her passport photo. But, really, that's only part of the story. I took the picture, and I admit, I touched it up a bit. Just the zits (no daughter of MINE is going to have an ugly passport photo!), and I had to dodge the background a little bit. I sized it to 2" x 2" as the gov. website instructed. I included two different shots - one smiling, one not. There is an example on the gov. passport website of a woman smiling. I thought it would be fine. So, I burned the file to a disc. Off to Walmart to print at the kiosk (I was out of photo paper as I don't do much photo printing at home). I put the disc in and the file was unreadable. Well, crap. I must have done something wrong in the burning process. I called home, asked Hubby to burn me another and double check settings (fortunately, we only live 1/4 mile from Walmart). He so graciously met me in the driveway, even though we are having arctic temperatures again today. But, I brought him a soda, so all was well. Back to Walmart we go. Insert disc. File cannot be read. ARGH!!! Back home we go, double check all through the boxes in storage to e sure we really don't have any photo paper. Nope. We don't. I opened the Photoshop document to save a new jpg. Maybe the other was corrupted or something. Hubby asked if it was RGB. Nope. CMYK. I don't know that that should make a difference but I changed it. Back to Walmart for a THIRD time. This time, it printed. Hallelujah!!! Now, to the post office, which is less than a 1/4 mile away from our house but North instead of South. Still close. Good thing, too, because our adventures were only about half way over. We wait by the door as instructed. The postal lady (and I mean that in ever sense of the word) opened the door when she was ready for us. We go in, sit down and the process begins. She explains to us that you can't show teeth in a passport picture. Huh. Well, they should remove that sample from their website, then. It's ok, because I had two photos to choose from (and two copies of each - well, four really, because I made two prints of the 4x6 file that had 2-up of each of 2 poses...I wanted to be sure because I did not want to go back to Walmart....famous last words). Mrs. Postal pulls out this handy dandy little clear piece of plastic that has the markings on it for determining if a photo is sized correctly. Wouldn't you know it. Ours was not. Her face was about 1/8 inch too small. Now, she told me we could take a chance and it might be fine, but there was a chance it would get rejected. We didn't want to chance that, of course. She also offered to take a new photo there. How much is that, I inquired. Fifteen. That's all she said. Fifteen. Dollars? Well, yes. Fifteen dollars. Hmmm.... pay $15 for HER to do it, or drive 1/2 a mile to go home, resize, back to Walmart (AGAIN!!!) to reprint for 28 cents, and back to the post office. We opted for the latter. So, after burning our forth CD and making our forth trip to Walmart, we were back at the post office and ready to go.

Now, the application process is a bit involved, as it should be in this age of foreign terrorists and such. Emily does not have a driver's license yet. That means we had to use the secondary ID protocol. What that involves is a certifying witness (me) along with secondary ID forms (school ID). It also requires that the witness fill out a form. This form is not available for download from the website like the actual application is. So, I asked her about the form. Naturally, being the woman in charge of doing passports (and she did like 5 just today), she had no idea what I was talking about. Maybe it never comes up because most 16 year olds have a driver's license. She went to consult with the post master. He also had no idea what I was talking about. She did have the very helpful suggestion of going to the DMV (that was a good 10 miles away) and getting a gov't issue State ID, thereby, giving her a primary form of identification and negating the need for a certifying witness or any pesky form. I was already about 2 1/2 hours into this process and believe you me, standing in line at the DMV was on my list of fun things to do, right about two steps above root canal. I was prepared to just go with the school ID and prayer and see how that worked. God can raise the dead, he can part seas, and rain fire down from Heaven. Certainly He can handle a bit of gov't bureaucracy to get my daughter out of the coutry to do His good work, right? Well, before it came to that, Mrs. Postal reaches under he desk and pulls out a hanging files case marked, "Passport Forms." In about 10 secs. she has located exactly the form I had been talking about. What do you know? I very quickly filled out the form, she not so quickly examined the form, as though it was something I brought in rather than a gov't form SHE provided for ME. It apparently passed her inspection because she added her signature and official stamp, I signed, Emily paid and we were on our way. Oh, and did you know they actually take your birth certificate? She's putting everything together in a nice tidy pile and says to me, "They're supposed (that was her inflection, not mine, which is a bit scary)to return your birth certificate to you." Um, excuse me? Here in Illinois, getting a replacement copy is as easy as going to the health dept. in the county of birth, paying $12 and getting a copy. Kansas is very different. It involves copies of my ID, mailing a SASE and check, and waiting. And waiting. And waiting. A couple of months later, it will surprise you in your mail box because you sent your request off so long ago that you forgot all about it. It was really, really hard for me to let that thing go. It was even harder to watch her put staples in it. Not once, but twice because she had already stapled it all up before she found the elusive form. But, I took a deep breath, silently counted to 10, and we moved on.

So, in two weeks, my baby girl will be prepared for international travel. It's all very exciting. Until next week, when we have to go for out of country immunizations.

1-15-09

2009-01-15T19:44:00.002-06:00

1-15-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

Today was a snow day. Well, really, it was a freezing cold day. Snow didn't hamper anything, but it was -14 degrees this morning, and there is concern about kids who walk to school and wait at bus stops. So, to keep them safe and warm, they cancelled school. My kids begged for snow cream today. This is ice cream made with snow. We have a ton of snow, so it's easy to find some clean (relatively speaking) snow. I scooped a big bowl full from our patio table. Anyway, you add milk, vanilla and sugar. I took a couple of picks of just the snow cream but decided it was too white and boring, so I scrounged some caramel from the fridge and drizzled it on for a bit of contrast.

I suppose we'll always make snow cream when there's enough snow. The kids love it. It doesn't taste near as good as Breyer's, but then it's not always about the taste, is it? In this case, it's all about the experience.

1-14-09

2009-01-14T19:09:00.002-06:00

1-14-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

Is Heaven better than 1,000 pieces of candy?

This is the question that came out of my son's mouth at dinner tonight. We've had lots of really strange conversations at dinner. I was a nurse in labor and delivery for 10 years, after all. There is no topic that is banned from dinner discussions. The other night we were talking about words that are considered to be bad language, but that have acceptable definitions, like bitch, for example. This is a word my kids have been hearing a lot at school. I explained that this is a term that dog breeders use to refer to their female breeder dogs. That led to other words, like Hell. Tonight, we revisited that conversation, and then began to talk about Heaven and what Heaven is like, at which time Jonah (8) asked the above question. That gave me the idea for this picture. These are candy bones. Hannah (10) won them at school by being the closest guesser as to the number of bones in the jar. I think there were around 1,100. There are about half that now, but it still works for the picture.

I love that doing this project gives me the boost I need to write things like this about my children. Baby Books don't go to age 8, so this is the perfect place to immortalize the crazy, silly, fantastic things kids say.

1-13-09

2009-01-14T12:05:00.003-06:00

1-13-09
Originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127

This was just one of those days. I took this in the morning and then went to bed without taking another shot. Then realized I had not blogged it. Ah well. I think the goal is to TAKE something every day. At least that's my goal. I don't think I can handle the requirement to take AND post everyday.

Anyway, this is Max. He's our beloved little guy. Although he's not that little. I've always grown really big cats. Not sure why. We got him from the humane society when he was about palm sized. He'd been abandoned in a cemetary with his little mates when they were just a day old. As a result, he never nursed. I could tell that he missed out on something because he suckled on my hands and fingers every opportunity he got. Now he's grown, and he has adopted Hannah as his human. I feel abandoned but that's ok. He still gives me love whenever I want it.

He went outside yesterday for a potty break. But then, because it was snowing, he just sat there, watching the snow, then started looking at us through the door. That's what he does when he's ready to come back in. I tried to get a shot of him looking at the camera as snow was collecting on his coat, but he was distracted by the kids and I didn't have the heart to make him sit out there while I looked for the perfect shot.

1-12-09

2009-01-12T09:24:00.004-06:00

I grabbed my camera from the dresser and was heading downstairs for breakfast. I commented to hubby as I was walking out that I wondered what I'd shoot today. He made some goofy, not real suggestions, then he said I could try water again today. I was going to try and get a better shot of a water drop, but then decided to try something new. Still drips, but of food coloring into water. I was interested to find that I got a better color spread if I used warm water. It was also much prettier with two colors rather than just one. So, here's my shot for today, bright and early!

1-11-09

2009-01-11T16:49:00.002-06:00

1-11-09
Originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127

Today it started snowing. I was inspired by @indianashutterbug to try and get a macro shot of some snowflakes. For an idea of scale, the black background is a bed sheet. It's at least 300 count. It's also covered in lint. It looks like course canvas or something because the flakes are so small. This shot was much harder than I thought it would be. I could see the flakes through the lens and I'd focus, but even the beating of my heart moved my body just enough that it threw the focus. I guess that's the way it is with macro. I've not done much of it so didn't realize how tricky focus can be. A tripod wasn't really an option given where the flakes were and stuff. I finally found a way to support the camera on the table where I was shooting to steady it. There is minimal sharpening done here - just for web. I really love nature and all the beauty it has to offer if we just look close enough.

1-10-09

2009-01-10T21:02:00.005-06:00

Communion Preparation
Originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127

This is one of the several things I did today. This afternoon, I went to Amish country to get some milk from a farmer. I was hoping to find something really interesting to shoot down there. But, it turns out it was way too cold and windy and rainy for me to get out and do anything. This month, hubby and I are in charge of getting communion ready for church each week. We go in Saturday evening and fill 34 of these trays with cups, then juice. They put the little crackers in the cups plate in the middle tomorrow morning. We have two services at church, so between services, we run to the kitchen and refill what's been taken so second service can take communion. Our church takes communion every Sunday.

Because I enjoyed this picture too, I decided to post two for today. This is hubby filling cups. See that cool little dispenser? Well, the first time we did this almost a year ago, we didn't know about those things. We filled like 700 cups with a glass Pyrex liquid measuring cup. It was messy. It took us a very long time. Then we discovered the dispenser. We were much happier for the rest of that first month.

1-9-09

2009-01-09T18:51:00.005-06:00

Tonight was one of the rare gorgeous sunsets we have here in Central Illinois. I was used to seeing sunsets like this every night in Kansas. I remember saying to Emily, who was preschool aged, "Look what a beautiful sunset God painted for us tonight." I said it a lot. The Kansas sky is one of the things I have really missed since we moved to Illinois.

In this particular image, I really like the ray of light that is shooting up. The sun was well below the horizon, but that ray was still coming up and hitting those clouds near the center. I also really like how there was some gorgeous blue sky peeking through. I saw more of it as I was driving to find a place to get a clear shot. It doesn't show as well by the time I was able to stop and get out of the van. But it was a brilliant blue, like you see on a clear summer day. I also really like silhouettes, so the bare winter trees in silhouette on the left side really make me happy.

1-8-09

2009-01-09T10:08:00.001-06:00

1-8-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

Yesterday was water, today is fire. I had hubby stir and prod at the fire to get the sparks to fly.

1-7-09

2009-01-07T19:09:00.003-06:00

1-6-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

I'm always fascinated and amazed at water drop shots. So, I decided to try one today. I had to use ISO 1600 because I did it this evening and it was dark in my kitchen. But I needed a fast enough shutter speed to get the hard edges of the water. I may try this again in day light or with some additional light or something to see if I can get it at ISO 100. My camera just doesn't do well over about 400. Also, I was cooking dinner and only had about 5 min. to spare to work on this. I think for a first time go at something like this, I did ok.

1-6-09

2009-01-07T09:31:00.002-06:00

1-6-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

So it was 11:45 last night and I'd just gone to bed when suddenly I realized I had not taken a photo for that day!! Well, I was messing around with my iPhone, playing a game. I was also stuck and unable to move because my little angel was asleep on my arm. So, I took this picture. Because we just had the bathroom light on, this was a seriously low light situation and the iPhone does not allow for manual adjustments of settings. But, I really like how this image turned out, grain and all. I just did a tiny bit of work on it in Lightroom. I darkened behind his head because I felt the pattern of my sheets distracted, and I converted to sepia. I thought it fit the grainy look of the photo.

Today, my goal is to get a nice shot of my cat. It's been so dark and dreary out that window light has not been great, but last I saw him, he was laying right in front of the window so that should be enough.

1-5-09

2009-01-05T15:38:00.001-06:00

1-5-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

We have these red roman shades in our living room. You can't see very well, but they have this swirl pattern worked into the fabric. While we were out shopping the other day, I saw this lamp shade. As it happens, our floor lamp that used to sit in front of our windows had it's shade destroyed. The hazards of raising young children. Anyway, when I saw this shade, I just had to have it. I knew it was perfect for our living room.

1-4-09

2009-01-05T15:36:00.002-06:00

1-4-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

While I was in Kansas, I was able to visit a photography store. We don't have one of those around here. I went for bulbs for my lights. They asked if I wanted day light balanced bulbs or regular tungsten. I'd not tried daylight bulbs, so I thought it would be something nice to try. This is a test shot I took with it. It was very strange when I turned it on. The bulb is blue and everything had a blue tint to it to my eyes. But, I set my camera to daylight and this is what I got. Nothing blue about it! Overall, I think I like this bulb.

1-3-09

2009-01-05T14:58:00.001-06:00

1-3-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

We travelled home today. We were going through Kansas City and this church caught my eye. It was reflecting the sun beautifully.

1-2-09

2009-01-05T14:57:00.001-06:00

1-2-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

We were having dinner with my husband's parents. They have this amazing pop up book of The Wizard of Oz. This is Grandpa looking at it with one of my 8 year olds.

1-1-09

2009-01-05T14:53:00.001-06:00

1-1-09, originally uploaded by fulqvr_ps127.

We were on the go much of the first few days of the year and this was the best I could do while traveling this day. We had stopped at Starbucks to start our morning, and my little guy, age 2, really enjoys my peppermint white mocha drink.

Welcome to my 365!

2009-01-05T09:36:00.000-06:00

I know I'm a little late getting started, but I really did take pictures every day this year in preparation for this project. My goal is to post one photo every day for 2009. I'm doing this along side a bunch of other moms who also take pictures. You can check out their 365 blogs in my following section. I hope you enjoy my year in pictures! Thanks for checking me out!