My New Camera!! YIPEE!!

My sweet soul mate of 12 years heard me talking about how I would love to take up photography as a new hobby, and how frustrating it is to see a picture in your mind but not be able to get it in a picture. That's the problem with most click and shoot cameras. And really, I'm no pro either, but I confessed that I would LOVE to learn how to use a camera that had different lenses, try my hand at photography and see if I can get the pictures that I see in my head into print. So he hears me say this, maybe twice, (though I've probably said it more than that to other people!) and that maybe for Christmas I could get myself one. (Christmas is always a good excuse for the 'want list.') As you can see from previous posts, my camera sucks!

So Doug comes home one day and hands me a card with this wad of paper in it. I was thinking, "what the heck is this? (sorry, that's the U-tard in me. We use 'heck' a lot.) I unfold it, look at it and see lots of colorful information and pictures, and it still takes me a minute to figure out that he just bought me all the stuff on those sheets! He said he researched it, and asked a couple of photographers what a good beginner professional camera would be, and then he bought it.

I am now the proud owner of a Nikon D40! WOO-HOO!! I cannot wait to get my hands on it! I'm sure it's going to take me a year to figure out all the different gadgets and shutter speeds, and something called 'white balance,' but I cannot wait! Now I suppose I'll have to get Photoshop Elements. Maybe I'll start dropping the hints now!

I'm IM-patiently waiting for it to arrive. Till then, I'm on pins and needles! Hee-Hee!

On another note, since we're having lots of "potty moments" lately, I thought I would share the most recent. I know you all love these moments! LOL! Andon calls me into the bathroom to inform me that he was done going 'poo-poos.' I said "great, let's get you down." He then informs me that I needed to wait and then I could see him concentrating (pushing) very hard. And for all that effort, one little plop could be heard. He looks up at me and says, "the poo-poo is stuck. I can't get it out?" (yes, a question mark, since he's never experienced this phenomenon before. The boy just has great bowels!) I told him that it's okay, it'll come out later. (The things you have to discuss when you have children.) He said, "yeah, but it's stuck behind my brain." Ha-ha, hee-hee, I was so laughing!

Full disclosure seems to be the theme for the week. Brittnee again asked me how babies got IN the tummy. She's aware how they come out, but not how they got in. Nope, just not ready to talk to her about this because a. she's a little too young and b. The rest of the 3rd grade would know by nightfall. Yes, I think it's okay to tell your kids about the birds and the bees (see, I can't even say it)when they're 8, but it really depends on the maturity level of the child. I may just wait and make the school fill her in like I did Teaghan. We did have the discussion though, just not till she was in 5th grade!

My first!

Tonight was my first piano recital!! It brought back such memories of being a kid and playing in recitals, and now I got to do one for my students, my girls'! Unfortunately the pics weren't that great, not your fault Doug, it's just the camera. (Stupid camera!) Anyways, I couldn't be more proud. They all did a great job, and it was so splendidly selfishly wonderful to see the progress each one had made. I can't wait to see them continue to make progress and get better, and to think that I had a little bit to do with that. What a blessing!

Trucking Accident

This is what happened Saturday night. Aren't they lovely pics? Why is it, now that I'm older, when I see blood I get nauseas. Not just sort of pukey, the kind where you just have to sit down, but the kind where you know if you don't find the nearest seat you will pass out. I never used to be this way. I got cut up all the time when I was a kid, especially on a bike. I even had my gums burned off to allow braces to pull my teeth down. Did I get sick? No. Did I feel in the least bit squeamish? Nope. But if one of my kids gets bloody, boy do I get sick. I'll blame it on getting older because there are rides at the amusement parks that I can't seem to ride anymore, i.e. the 'Teacups,' and the like. So when Doug brings in my sweet baby cut up from the road, I lost it. (no, not literally, I did contain my "cookies.")

Here's what happened: Andon was riding in one of the large Tonka trucks that we own, riding it down the drive way. He would sit in the back like it was a chair, and then let gravity propel him down the driveway. I had gone out to see what everyone was up to and I beheld this. I said to Doug something to the effect that this probably wasn't a good idea. I walk back inside the house, and not two minutes later, I hear screaming and Doug walks in carrying Andon. To make a long story short, he'd biffed it on the curb and his face took the fall. He scuffed up his top lip (i've never seen a fat lip as large as he had!), had a bloody nose not only INSIDE but OUTSIDE as well. He forehead was scratched, and even his forearms weren't exempt from the road's assault.

Needless to say, he screamed, Doug cleaned him up, and I got sick. But despite being sick I did have the frame of mind to get pictures. How truly sad am I. But here's the thing, I plan on publishing this on Blurb as a journal of sorts, so I HAD to get pictures. There, that's my excuse. Luckily now he just looks like a four year old with a moustache, reminiscent of Hitler. But I know, wherever I go, people are probably thinking I beat him. They're not far off. JUST KIDDING!!





On another note, yesterday Doug and the kids watched the "Papa Movie" made by my sweet sister-in-law for father's day after we lost Doug's dad. It still makes everyone cry, it's that moving. I thought a year and a half later that it wouldn't affect us so, but it still does. There came up some pictures of the hearse with papa's coffin being loaded and then a picture of the hearse driving away. Andon says, "There's Jesus car!" referring to the hearse. He then says, "Jesus car is SUPER FAST! It brought back memories of when he named the hearse "jesus' car." (See In the Mind of a 4-year old for the story behind this.)

I suppose he'll always think of the hearse as Jesus' car, at least until he's old enough to reason that one out, but I hope that he stays as pure and sweet as he is now. But what I really do hope is that he remembers just a little bit about his Papa that loved him so.