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What Did You Get For Christmas?

December 27, 2011 By 8 Comments

This was a really great Christmas for us!  I know I’ve complained a lot about the trials of starting this new job, but getting that first paycheck on the Thursday before Christmas was a LIFESAVER!  I don’t think I’ve ever had so much fun Christmas shopping having that disposable money to spend and knowing that I wasn’t taking food off of the table just for the sake of some presents.

My kids are very fortunate to have their Grandma who spoils them to bits.  I almost think Grandma’s presents out-shined Santa’s!

Each of the twins got a big Lego set, the LEGO City Fire Stationand the LEGO Police Station .  They’ve been asking for them since last Christmas and they were finally old enough to get them and actually build them mostly on their own.  Anthony’s big gift was a “real” (yet Anthony proof) digital camera, the Fujifilm FinePix XP20 .  This camera is waterproof, dust proof and shock proof.  He had the memory card full and the battery drained on the first day!  I’ll be setting him up his own Flickr account so he can share his pictures, he’s very excited and I’m proud of my little budding photog.

As for me, my mom is good to me, too.  I was able to score a new set of Philosophy skin care (that I sampled at BlogHer and fell in love with yet couldn’t afford to buy refills).  I got a new Ninja (Anthony broke my last one) and a pretty desert stand.

The least favorite gift I received was a nasty head cold.  I feel like crap!  Anyone else get this extra special gift?  ugh.

Of course there is more but instead of boring you with my amazing gifts, I want to hear about yours instead.  What did you get?  What was your favorite present?  Did your kids get anything fabulous??  Please share!

 

Filed Under: Family Life, Holidays Tagged With: , , ,
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Vacations Are For Sleeping…Right?

November 21, 2011 By 4 Comments

I was really looking forward to this weeks Thanksgiving vacation.  An entire week of staying up late and sleeping in.  Right?

Wrong.

During the school week, it can take a wall full of train horns to rouse the sleeping cherubs from their slumber.  My alarm is set at 6:30am and I mill around, make coffee, and watch the news.  All in peace and quiet while waiting for the boys.  When 7:00am comes around, the boys are just snoozing away and the battle begins.

So this week, when the boys have the freedom to sleep in as long as their little hearts wish….they are up at SIX FREAKING A.M.

WTH?

Why the sudden change in sleeping pattern?  Why can’t their little bodies get the message that it’s time to SLEEP IN?  It is so frustrating.

I guess I  need to find where they sell train horn kits so I have one on on standby for next Monday when they decide to sleep past seven again.

Do your kids sleep in on their vacations?

Filed Under: Family Life Tagged With: ,
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Photo Editing Fun

October 21, 2011 By 3 Comments

I updated my iPhone operating system this week and I almost had a heart attack when I thought I had lost 434 pictures from my phone.

Four HUNDRED and thirty-four.

That’s a LOT of pictures!

I like pictures.  I take pictures every day.  I take pictures with my phone and with my Canon Rebel XS.  You should see the amount of pictures on my computer!  I’m sure any mother would agree that when you have little people running around, your cameras work overtime.  Along with being an amateur photog, I dabble with photo editing programs.  I tried learning how to do digital scrapbooking but that hobby went by the wayside ( I really should do it again…it was fun!).
It is really fun to play with pictures in Photoshop and with a little practice, you can turn a boring picture into something special.

Here is a cute picture (or so I think) of Nathan at the pumpkin patch recently.  I love his tongue.  You should see it go when he’s trying to concentrate!  I actually had to put chapstick around his face the other day because he had chapped his chin with his tongue.

Anyhow, his face was a little dark in the first picture so I decided to lighten it up.  To lighten the entire photo without losing color, duplicate your layer (Control J in PSE8) and then set the top layer style to “screen.”  It is one of my favorite tricks to lighten up a picture lost in shadows.

Sometimes just a simple lighten will improve a photo, but in this case, it kind of overexposed some spots.

I never claimed to be a professional!

So instead I tried to run an action.  Actions are awesome little pre-made programs that will edit and colorize your photos at the click of a button.  One of my favorite places to get free photoshop actions is the Coffeeshop Blog.  The action I ran on this photo is called “Attic Vintage.”

When all else fails crop the photo in close.

I usually will edit a photo ten different ways before I find something I am happy with.  I really wish I had the creative editing talent like some of my friends.  I just keep practicing.  Maybe once I figure this out I will try a movie editor!

One can dream.

Filed Under: Misc. Nonsense Tagged With: , ,
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