Thursday, April 30, 2009

Camera Troubles

I seem to be having camera troubles lately. A lot of my pictures aren't quite turning out. They are dull, they are blurry. I'm not sure if it's the lens, if something got changed in the camera settings that I haven't found yet, if it's because the sun hasn't come out in days, or if it's just plain operator error. Probably that.

I took a few pictures at supper time last night, most of them of Brian weren't quite sharp. Brian's sharp, the pictures weren't. It might have been the lighting.

It might have been because I was rushed....he's smiling but saying "seriously mom, I am trying to eat."

Then there was Billy. This one could have been cute, but it was blurry.

Of course this one is crystal clear. Can you hear my heavy sigh? Boys.

I tried again a little later. This one is a little better, but the flash made the cat's eyes funky. Or maybe getting too much loving was what made the cat's eyes funky. Hard to say.

Here's one of Brian that's not too bad. He is a big fan of
A & W Rootbeer. Can you tell?? Something with the camera caused all the clutter in the background though. I told you I was having trouble with the camera!

When I start having troubles, I just focus on the flowers. With the camera and otherwise. Ahhh.

That's better. Maybe the camera is OK and I just have to take a little more time to get things right. Maybe I have to stop and smell the tulips.

And take time to actually focus. Like the cat. That's better.

You can learn a lot from cats and flowers. Bet you didn't know that did ya. :-)


Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The older I get...

...the better I used to be.

Softball is already in full swing. Trouble is, I'm not feeling like I'm in full swing form just yet. I'm hoping that it will come....but I'm so sure anymore. Older, slower, weaker....not good signs. It's an odd feeling knowing that I'm never going to be any better than I was. I used to have hope that I could be. The path between denial and reality is a bumpy one....hopefully it won't get too rough before the summer is over.

This guy doesn't have worries like that. He's just as good as he used to be. It just doesn't seem fair does it?

Speaking of how things used to be...and this is a big jump...I was looking at some of our older pictures the other day....something about my hard drive running out of room....and I came across these pictures of Billy. They were taken in late April of 2005. Just four years ago, doesn't he look like a little boy?

He was practicing playing his recorder while waiting for the school bus. How cute was that?

Time marches on. I better get moving if I hope to keep up.
Have a great day.



Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Symmetry

It's always fun for me to see the newborn calves in the Spring. So many times the little ones look like a clone of their mother. They look alike, they act alike, they move alike....

...this little one is about a week old, and it has its mamma's movements down. They are in perfect symmetry. The mamma's don't care about that, they only care about letting anything get too close to their babies.

Especially these two....but look....they are in symmetry too.

Doing the dog waltz at the farm.



Monday, April 27, 2009

What is That?

We headed to the country late on Saturday night, after Billy's baseball practice. Sunday was cold and rainy, there were even claps of thunder during church in the morning. The rain had let up after church, but it was still damp and muddy enough that riding didn't seem like a good idea. It's never too damp or muddy to wander out to see how the boys are doing though!

Hi Czar...watch cha' looking at?

There are only two calves so far this year. They were cold and wet and cute....and looking at something.

What cha' looking at little buddy with those long white lashes?

They were all looking at this crazed animal! Penny's in the country with room to run, and mud to roll in, and more running and rolling and being a really happy dog. Here I come! Wheeee!

Czar is wondering who unleashed the beast.

Skylar is just happy that with a little bit of rain things are greening up....

....oooooohhhhhhhh, fresh, green grass......

......Spring has arrived in the country.....Skylar says amen.



Saturday, April 25, 2009

Bridal Shower

I went to a bridal shower today. Funny how a little get together in the middle of the day pretty much takes up the whole day!

Eric's niece is getting married in June. She's the 2nd of our nieces to get married. We're at the age where our friends and siblings have been married a long time, now it's the kids that are getting married. And they sure seem like kids. I suppose that they will always seem like kids.

It seemed like Jessica was much too young to get married....then I remembered that I was two years younger than she is when I got married. Hmm. Today's shower was a women only shower. We played some games, I tied for first in one and won another...woohoo....prizes!

It was fun to see her gifts....but it made me realize how old and worn out most of my stuff is. It also made me think about how all of that mattered way back then, but it doesn't so much now.

Our things have seen lots of use, and lots of love and I wouldn't trade that for anything....but those shiny new kitchen things sure were pretty!


Friday, April 24, 2009

The Garden Center

This warm weather has me itching to get outside and into the dirt! A brief glance around the yard sadly showed me how much I need to get outside and into the dirt. Between the poorly planned landscaping that was done before we moved in here, the harsh winter, and the darned rabbits....oh, and whizzer the dog....the yard is looking pretty rough. So I decided to go to the garden center today, mostly to look at a few things like edging and to buy yard bags. I was innocently walking along when this little beauty grabbed my arm and insisted that I bring it home.

It's a perennial forget-me-not plant. The flowers are teeny tiny...about 1/4" across.

They are the prettiest blue, with white and yellow centers.

I didn't need them, it's a little early to get into planting stuff, but I couldn't resist.

I should be out raking and cleaning up the yard, but I'd rather be taking pictures of flowers.

Look what happens if you sit too close to a little plant with a big ole' zoom lens...

....it's called a bokeh effect....and I could try to capture it all day long.

But whizzer the dog is barking to get in, and I'd better get out with my rake....so I'll stop now.
I hope that you were able to get outside today too!


Thursday, April 23, 2009

A phone and a flower

I got a new phone! I'm blogging later in the day today because I spent my normal blogging time playing with my new phone. Did I mention that I got a new phone? I like to be able to check my email when I'm away from home....need to during the work week...but just plain like to other times. My last phone was supposed to have email access, but it was really hit or miss. I'd be able to log in often enough to get my hopes up that it would work the next time...it usually didn't. Or I'd be able to log in, see the message titles and then not be able to read the message....argh. Error after error. There were many, many times when the phone almost went sailing out the car window. I think Eric got tired of my complaining...so we researched....decided to stay with T-Mobile...and got this sweet little thing for me. It's the G1. It can pretty much do anything. I can even hook it up to my laptop for internet access.

When we first were looking at the phones, this sassy young sales girl sized us up and said, "umm, this would really be a whole lot of phone for you" with a tone that said you won't ever be able to figure it out. Thanks sweety, but I have figured it out just fine. I've synced up my calendar, added pictures, songs and even created my own ring tone. Now, if I could just get these bi-focal contacts to work to read the numbers, I might be able to use the darned thing.

With teenaged boys in the house, we also adding unlimited texting to their phones. Billy is pumped about it, Brian doesn't think he'll use it. You just never know.

On to other things. It got really warm today! My phone shows me the temperature, the radar, it gave me a fire danger warning today....I didn't know what that warning sign was....maybe it is too much phone for me. Anyway, back to the warm day...my car said 90 at around 5:00 pm....it wasn't right, but it sure looked strange! And just in one day, look what popped up in my yard....

...a beautiful yellow wildflower. It must be summer.

And don't tell me that it's a weed...because then I'd have to pull them....and for now I'd rather just enjoy the color and call it a flower.
Well, I have to go and text the boys and tell them to clean their rooms....see....my phone really can do everything! Now, if I could just remember where I left it....
Enjoy your day.


Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Happy Earth Day

Yep, that's all....because I forgot before....Happy Earth Day!



The Tickets

Last week when we were at the Twins game, we got circled by Bert and won $100 worth of lottery tickets. They said that the tickets would arrive in the the mail sometime in the next ten days. Yesterday the boys found this package in the mail. Could it be the tickets?

Sure enough. 20 Five Dollar Twins scratch off cards.

Each card could win up to $100,000. Each card had 20 chances to win! Wouldn't it be wonderful to win a top prize?

The boys need to be 18 to play the lottery, so they officially weren't playing....but we thought it would be more fun if we could all scratch off the cards as a family. Here is Brian with the 5 he scratched off.

And Billy had five to help with.

Eric looks pretty hopeful that he won't have to go to work tomorrow when one of the cards hits it big!

Oh...and I of course had already dreamt up all kinds of ways to spend my winnings.

We each grabbed a nickel and we scratched. The cat thought that the scratching looked pretty interesting.

Scratch, scratch, scratch....

Scratch, scratch, oh be the big one, scratch....

Scritchity scratch....and the big results......drum roll please.... 6 of the 20 cards were winners for a whopping.....

.....$37.00. Phooey. The odds for winning stated on the tickets said 1 to 3.5. I guess that was about right. We're not big gamblers. Probably a good thing with that kind of luck. Winning a little bit more would have been fun, but this was probably a better lesson for the boys.
I'm not complaining, we got to go to a good baseball game, we had great seats, we got on TV, I called Bert lame, we had the excitement of maybe winning something big....and $37.00 is better than nothing! Oh, and the boys left their nickels on the table....finders keepers....
....and don't tell them, but the tickets have a second chance option where you can send them in to win wonderful prizes....and I just know that we'll win big with one of those. I'll bet ya a nickel.