Photos and editing

I used to put a lot of time into editing photos (4.5 years ago-pre twins.)....making them look cute, changing color, playing with the tones and all those other technical terms that I have no idea what they mean!  


The art of photography has come a long way and thanks to digital cameras and editing, you can make a photo look really cool - even if the photo you took was sub par.


Not that I take sub par photos.


Not at all.


I'm sure they are fine.


Par.


Or maybe close to Par. I'm not a golfer, so I can't use Bogey or Birdie correctly in a sentence. 


But I did discover a very simple online editing tool (pic---monkey...without the dashes, but didn't want anyone googling it, to find my site :) ) that has simple features that you can complicate if you really feel the need.


I don't.


But 3 computers ago I had great photo editing software...and now I don't.


But this one I found will be my new favorite!

Before

After

Now, you may not like the change, but I just like the difference. 


Look at this one:

Before

After

Not drastic, just different. I love how easy it was to put color on just one area. My old software I had to draw around the object to show which to color/b&w. So tedious.  Hours of work for one photo.


This took me 7.5 minutes. 


Or 13.


But it was quick none the less. 


Cheers!


OH, and I promise better quality photos posted to this site from now on! :)

A Raise...

Yesterday I was feeling a little underpaid. 


I've spent nearly a week with my sweet husband out of town. It's one thing to be out of town for a planned work trip, it is another for a last minute with no pre-planning and pre-arranging of the schedules kind of trip.


So, left on my own to figure out how to manage a household that needs 2 adults - especially for driving peeps to their practices/games/etc...was something that retail therapy didn't help (yes, I did try :) but shopping with 3 kids....not helpful.). I even tried online shopping...but was lacking in serious funds for what I was looking to make me feel better ;)!


We were doing pretty good until Sunday.  


When it was 100 degrees out.


And we had to be at the ball park from 8am to 1:30pm or so. 


I couldn't even get a sitter, it was Sunday and everyone I knew was at church.


SO, we made all attempts to stay cool, hydrated and have our potty times in between innings.


During game 2 I had tent squatters...that took up shade in trade for escorting people to the bathroom every 6 minutes. Thank goodness because for whatever reason Monkey thought it was hilarious to drain his cup so he could go pee again. *sigh*. Sorry Grandma!


Thankfully, someone loves me enough to bring me a present.


It was heartfelt and sweet...

And dead.

And part gone...likely eaten by the sweet boy who brought it to me...

 Which was nice...to have a gift delivered right to the back door...Thanks Hank!

Would have been better had he not ran away while we were at swim lessons...making me drive around the neighborhood searching for him for 30 minutes....

*sigh*. 

I guess you gotta take your gifts as they come, and leave the rest behind!

However, as nice as the gesture...I tossed the partial bird wing in the trash...almost with my *cookies*, since I really hate cleaning stuff like that up...

Cheers!

Big shout out to ADog

Well, I don't like to get all bragger, bragger cookie bagger...but since this is a record of our life, it would be remiss of me to only point out the ridiculous things my kids do and never let people know of the awesome things they do.


I'm not talking awesome like what certain body parts got drawn on our life sized body drawings that we did this week during science. It was supposed to be lungs, heart and bones. A few people got carried away and added their personal parts. It was awesome, like roll my eyes, awesome. Like we aren't hanging those up for people to see awesome. And let's all say a little prayer of thanks that my 4 year olds don't go to preschool - I'd have some explaining to do...


I'm talking about ADog. He has really turned this year, his final of middle school - into a really amazing and AWESOME year. 


I am sure I have mentioned that he is in National Junior Honor Society as the VP, he serves in a group call WEBS (Where everyone belongs...what the heck is the "S" for??? Not sure).  


Well, this year he also placed 1st in 8th grade for his science fair project AND 1st in the school overall (6th-8th).  My sweet husband and I did not help him all that much with the project. Mostly it was helping with a topic and getting his head wrapped around the project. 

He received an award at Vail Pride Day as well at S.ARSEF (Southern Arizona blah blah blah Science something Fair). Actually at S.ARSEF, he got 2 awards. 1 from a sponsor and 1 from S.ARSEF themselves. He received a bag, certificate, trophy and $75.   Yup, money.  Pretty impressive. There were some kids who won more money than that, mostly high school age. 


He also got awards for 3rd quarter and last years AiMS testing. Exceeded in all 3 areas, with High Honor Roll with a 4.0.

He has straight A's in all his classes including his sophomore geometry class. When he starts  high school this summer, he will already have 2 of his 4 math classes already completed.  We worked on his schedule a month or so ago, and he will be taking honors/pre-ap classes this year. That means, more homework, harder classes and maybe not all A's. :)


Never fear, I'm not claiming he is perfect. I'm certainly not saying he is smarter than anyone else's kid. Believe me, I can give you a laundry list of not as awesome things he does too. 


But, we love him and there is not a big market to sell teenagers right now. We will just have to keep him...but trust me when I say, it is NOT because of all the chores he gets done around here...that is not it :)


or his common sense. That reason would never even be on a list of top 100 reasons to keep ADog around.


Ever.


Or his ability to be quiet as a mouse at 6am while some of us the kids are still sleeping.


That doesn't make the top 100 either. Or 200.


BUT, he is cute (and went along with us and wore a matching 10th Annual Cousins Retreat shirt) and he was super sweet to the only other boy cousin over the age of 7 at our Easter Retreat, letting him hang on the couch and watch sports all day. 

That cutie on the left belongs to my cousin...I could kiss those cheeks all day!!!


Cheers!