Up To

I thought for sure that after the graduation open house party and the fourth of July, that things would start to slow down around here...... boy was I wrong !

I've been busy studying and PASSING my motorcycle permit test. Now I can ride my scooter outside of my subdivision without fear of being asked to see my permit. Next up my ABATE class so I can get my license....... oh joy!

I've also been busy getting ready to enter 4 of my photos into a local contest. My living room is filled with piles of photo supplies, so I can mount and display my pics.

The living room is going to get even fuller after today, when the shipment of Michael's dorm supplies arrives today. So hard to believe that in what 5 weeks my "baby" will get heading off to college !

Speaking of my "baby" he turned 19 this last Wednesday. His last teenage year! Where did the time go?

Oh well no rest for this woman today.

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A Leap of Faith

I'm taking a huge leap of faith and entering 4 of my photos into a local (judged) contest. I've entered photo contest before, but those have been online. This will be the first time I've entered them locally and it scares the crap out of me.

Picking which photos to enter was painstakingly hard. The ones I really wanted to enter didn't fall into the contests categories. So, I had to go through ALL of my photos and pick ones that did fit..... not an easy task to say the least.

Wish me luck and pass the tequila ........ :0)

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Prom 2010

I know, I know I'm waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind in updating my blog.

Hope to be back soon. Until then here's some quick pics from Prom

Oldest Son M, his girlfriend, Me, Daughter K , and her boyfriend

Group shot

Oldest Son M and his girlfriend

Another Group Shot

Daughter K and her boyfriend

In 3 week Oldest Son M and Daughter K graduate from High School ! Two weeks later I take Oldest Son M down state to get his classes and dorm all picked out. A week later is the Grad Open House. So, if I go MIA again know that I'm just SUPER busy right now and I will be back once things are a more normal speed again.

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Snow Pictures

I posted some pictures I took out in the snow today over on my photography blog.

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It's Time

When we bought this house 5 years ago the basement was unfinished. It was one of the many things we liked about the house, having the ability to expand if we needed to. One of the first rooms to be built was a bedroom for Oldest Son M. He needed his own room and my Dad went to work right away. The plus side of having a Dad who owned ( he's retired now) his own home improvement business is saving lots of money. Besides the cost of materials we paid him in meals... gotta love that.

After that room was built , my Dad moved onto building me a Scrapbook/Art Studio. For the 2 years we lived in a tiny one stop light town I threw myself into scrapbooking. It was the only thing I had to do and I went for it. I even manged to get myself on 3 online design teams ! Between all of the free stuff I got each much from the design teams and the supplies I bought myself, I managed to collect quit a bit of supplies. They needed a home and I needed a place the I could create without the worry of having to clean up my mess every night.

When it was finished the room was just as I pictured in my mind ( and on paper lol) It was perfect! I painted it a yummy lettuce green and decorated it with fun stuff in shades of purple, orange & hot pink. It was my creative space and you couldn't help but smile when you walked into it.

As my time on the design teams came to and end ,I found myself no longer wanting to see my photos on fancy papers surrounded by odds and ends. I wanted them enlarged and hanging on my walls. I was proud of those photos and I wanted everyone who entered my home to see them. So, I said my goodbyes to the teams and didn't try out for anymore. At first I used my supplies to create gift cards, but after awhile that took a backseat to my photography.

Those supplies have been sitting down there collecting dust for over a year now and it's time to say goodbye to them. My photography stuff needs a place to be housed instead on sitting in plies all over my bedroom floor, and living room, and.......

On Monday I will walk in there and start boxing it all up. Much of it has a new home,a friend of mine still scrapbooks and she can't wait to get her hands on all of that free stuff. What she doesn't want I will let my kids go through to see if they want any of it. I will donate the rest to the elementary school art program.

It's time to say goodbye to the past and take the first step towards my new path in life. And guess what?????..... I'm READY!

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Homecoming Dance 2009 Pics.

Daughter K and her friend.If I could get her to stop tanning I would be a happy person! This is her last year of dances.
Daughter K and her date/boyfriend.
Daughter A, Barry, and Daughter K.
Daughter A. this was her first dance, she didn't go last year. She didn't go with a date just some friends. She's also not a dress girl at all and it drove her nuts having to wear one.

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The Beach-Sneak Peek

Barry & I spent a few hours at the beach. Here's a little sneak peek.

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iPhone Photos

I take a lot of photos with my cell phone, mostly to show Barry what we are doing through out the day. Sometimes to show him what we are eating and he's not.... I can be so mean lol. These are a few I've taken with my iPhone since getting it.

A refreshing drink I enjoyed yesterday. I would like to point out that there isn't a giant hole in the center of my table, well there is now but that's our fire pit table and when I sit out there during the day I remove the fire pit and put a umbrella in there. It looks weird but it keeps the sun off of me.
Some chili cheese fries that B-Monkey made all by himself. He even made homemade cheese sauce. He loves to cook just like his mama.
My first try at making BBQ beef ribs. I've made pork ribs before, but never beef ones. They turned out really good, need to do some tweaking on the sauce but other then that they were really yummy.
A nasty storm that rolled in a week or so ago. I was standing on my front porch when I took this and right after I took the shot the sky's opened up and it poured.

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Howdy

I posted some photos over here today.

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I Cried

When Daughter A and B-Monkey went to Michigan with my Dad , I let Daughter A borrow my "purse camera". I knew she would have a blast taking photos of their trip and I couldn't wait to see what kind of images she captured. When they got home yesterday one of the first things I did was load all of the photos she took onto my computer. Seeing the world through her "eyes" was so much fun. I laughed and smiled as I looked at each photo she took. But then I saw this one and I cried, not sad tears but happy tears because she is so much like me. She sees the world like I do behind my own camera lens. She captured my Dad and B-Monkey sharing some quiet time alone on the dock fishing. The images after this one show close ups of them smiling while they fish, but it is this one that I will forever remember.

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My Photography Classes

Jen over at Making Sense of it All asked me what I'm learning in my photography classes.

So far in Unit 1 I have learned pretty basic stuff:

The History of photography

About the Camera and how it works

About lenses

And basic photography skills ( depth of filed and stuff like that)

The tests are pretty straight forward and are more or less used to see if you understand what you are learning about.

As far as the photos for this unit they are shallow depth of filed, great depth of field and motion ( either freezing it or having it blurred to show motion)

So far I'm really liking it but since I know all that I'm learning right now I did get a little bored and found my mind wondering as I was reading. I'm sure as I progress through the units I will learn about stuff I didn't know and my mind won't wonder as much.

I did notice that even though I knew about what I was reading in Unit 1 , they worded it in a way that was much easier for me to understand, so it sunk in much better.

Even though I do have Units 2 & 3 here, I've only skimmed over the subjects to see what will be covered. It appears that I will be getting into more details on how to take photos in these next 2 units.

If you would like more details just ask and I'll be happy to answer them for you.

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My Poor Blogs

I have neglected my blogs so much these past few weeks. I knew this would happen once summer started. It's not like I haven't tired to post, you should see the amount of posts I've started but never finished. It just seemed like every time I started a post one of the kids would ask me a question, would need something ,or the phone would ring. Then I would loose my train of thought about what I was writing about so I would just walk away and leave it for another day.

But anyway what has been going on here......

After today Oldest Son M only has one day of sumer school left. He's been taking 2 required classes for next year. It's been a real PITA having to get up at the butt crack of dawn in the summer, but hopefully it will all be worth it in the end. We both will be so glad to sleep in next week !

I finished up the book work of Unit 1 of my photography classes. I still need to take the photos and send them in to be graded. Hopefully I will get that done this weekend. Unit 2 & 3 came last weekend and I have looked them over but haven't started reading yet. I want to get the photos taken and sent in for Unit 1 before I start on the next Unit.

I got the new iPhone ! If you knew me in person you would know that I'm such a Mac geek and I've drooled over the iPhone since it first came out. I put off getting one for the longest time and settled on the iTouch to cull my need to have one. The reason I got one now is on Sunday Barry's cell phone died and they told him it could take 2 to 3 weeks before they got it fixed. Well his cell phone is the only phone he has ( no landline) so he can't be without a phone for that long. After looking over all his choices, in cell phones, he settled on the iPhone. I then of course pouted and pointed out that when everyone else in the family upgraded their phone back in February, I didn't. I kept my Palm that has been giving me fits since the day I got it. So, he told me if I wanted to I could go out and get myself one. He didn't have to tell me twice and the next morning I was at AT&T with bells on.

So far so good with Daughter K being home again. While she's only been home 4 days, things are a little better with her. At least she's helping here around the house now, something that before I had a hard time getting her to do. We shall see how things progress as time passes. I don't know what happened with her while she was down in Arkansas with Barry, but I do know they talked A LOT about her attitude and all of the crap she has done in the past. I hope he got through to her and her changed attitude isn't a short lived thing.

Daughter A and B Monkey are going up to Michigan with my Dad and stepmom. They leave this coming Saturday and will be back next Thursday. They should have a great time and I'm sure they will love being spoiled by Grandpa.

I think that is pretty much it. I hope everyone is having a great summer so far.

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Hawk

The other day a hawk landed in one of my neighbors trees. I quickly grabbed my camera to take some pictures of it before it flew away. This was the best of the bunch.

In other news I will be back next week. Tomorrow ( Saturday) is Oldest Son M's 18 birthday party, so I'm busy getting ready for that.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

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Still Tweaking It but....

I've been working on the layout for my photography blog all day today. It still needs some work, but so far I'm happy with the way it looks. Head on over there to check it out and tell me what you think.

Thanks

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It's here !

My Unit One Photography Class stuff came today !

I'm so excited to start!

I quickly looked it all over...... tests ! YUCK, I thought I was through with taking tests!

My plan is to start Monday, but knowing me I'll sit down tonight or tomorrow and start reading...... :0)

I have a feeling that this unit is going to be pretty boring to me, since it pretty much covers stuff I already know...... which should make test taking pretty easy.......lol

I have 3 photo assignments..... 2 easy ones and 1 not so easy .... but I will give it my best shot.

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More Photography Equipment For Sale

Over the weekend I will be going through all my camera gear and selling items that I no longer use or have never used.

All items are in like new conditions.

So be sure to check back next week for the listings.

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Camera Bags For Sale- UPDATE

I am selling my two gently used backpack style camera bags. Sorry for the crappy pictures, but I will give links to the bags online where you can view more pictures of them.

I will ship them free if you live within 50 miles from my home in Indiana. Over 50 miles the cost of shipping with be $5.00.

I except PayPal or Money Orders.

If you would like to buy either of them please email me at looneymom at comcast dot net.

This first one is a Tamrac Travel Pack. It was my first camera bag and was more of less used to just store my gear. It did go on a few school field trips. No rips and is very clean. The light gray dividers seen in the second picture, belong in the next bag and I didn't notice them until I uploaded the picture.

To see more pictures of the bag go here

Cost : $20.00- SOLD!

This bag is also a Tamrac - Adventure 6 Backpack. It was also gently used. While I have used this one more ( it traveled to Europe with me & on all our family vacations) is shows no sign of wear and is really clean. The inside dividers are shown in the photo above and I will put them in there before I ship it off.

To see more photos of this bag please go here.

Cost :$ 30.00

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The Exciting News!

If you haven't figured it out by that little clue ..... I'm going back to school.

Photography School !

Sexy Stud and I talked about it all week, and I will be going back to school to get my certification in photography.

While he would like me to go to school in Chicago, for many reasons ( too many to list) that just doesn't feel like a good fit for me and our family at this point in time.

So I will be doing it online/distance learning.

I did all the research last year and it got put on the back burner when he took the job in Arkansas.

I dug out all the information again and filled out all the forms.

Just as soon as I get all my information in the mail I will be starting.

I'm excited and nervous all at the same time.

A year from now I will ( hopefully) be a better photographer and I can't wait !

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Photos

I'm slowly adding some photos on my photography blog.

Check them out here

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Photo Blog

It's just a start.... I have lots to do to it. But I will be moving my photos to their own blog.

You can go here to follow me if you like.

I will still post photos here on this blog from time to time, but I wanted to give my photos their own blog so they're are not mixed in with my sometimes whining about life.

I hope to see all of you & more there.

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