My life...just not on the road I expected (but it's still dang good).

The shuffle.

Seems like every day is a bit of a shuffling act around here.

But yesterday required more shuffling than usual.

Our regular morning routine...

Me, up at 4:30am working on emails (I don't usually get up that early, but Josh was snoring really loud and I was ticked off about it).

Josh, up at 5:30am making coffee and unloading the dishwasher.

Ross up and showering at 6am (he always takes an early-bird class).

Lights on in the kids bedrooms a little after 6:00am (except  yesterday, Coley quickly pulled the blankets over his head, hollering/reminding us that he didn't have school).

I laid out clothes for Courtney while Josh made cereal with diced-up bananas for the kids.

Annie up at 6:30am with a banana in her hand by 6:31.

After breakfast, Josh & I grabbed the hair-boxes for the girls (Annie & Courtney each have a pink box for all their hair stuff). 

Courtney got one ponytail.  Annie got two.

Josh grabbed Courtney's lunch box and backpack while I grabbed her sweater and shoes.

Josh took Ross & Courtney to school.

I took Annie to daycare and then Coley and I stopped to get a coffee & a not-so-hot from Dutch Brothers for breakfast.

Went over to a friends house to borrow her Canon 5D for the day (just to see if it shoots/focuses any differently than my 5D).  Talked camera talk for awhile.

Came home and worked for a couple of hours  while Coley played.

Started craving sweet potato fries and a ceasar salad, so Coley and I went to the G-Street Grill for lunch.

Swang by Josh's work to give him my leftovers before we went to pick up Annie.

Played in the front yard with Annie before her nap.

Went back to work while Coley put in a movie.

My Mom came by to watch the kids while I ran over to Medford to try to find 400 yards of cream fabric trim that I need for classes (thanks goodness for my Mother).

Went to JoAnn's fabrics and the Craft Warehouse.  No luck.

Called Josh and asked him to Google fabric stores in Medford.

Went to three more stores listed on Google.  Still no luck.

I did find a cute new pair of shoes on sale for 40 bucks though.

Picked up Courtney from school.

We decided on Starbucks for an early dinner (we shared a couple of slices of banana nut bread, a fruit cup, a juice and a chai-iced latte)...which means that I successfully managed to eat all three meals yesterday, breakfast, lunch and dinner, at either a restaurant or a coffee joint.

We had some time to kill, so we hung out at the book store for awhile.

Meanwhile...Josh got home around 4pm.  Coley had wrestling practice at 6:30, so my Mom came back over to watch Annie again because Coley's practice doesn't get over until 8pm and Annie is a nightmare if she's not in bed at 7:00pm (thanks Mom).

Courtney and I headed over to Ross's wrestling meet at Crater High School.

The meet started at 5:45pm.

Courtney befriended a 4 year old little girl at the meet, so they played while I dug into my new Photoshop CS3 book by Scott Kelby and waited for Ross to wrestle.

Ross didn't actually wrestle until 8:15pm.

The match lasted about 2 minutes (Ross got pinned).

Funny, it doesn't bother me to watch Coley wrestle because that kid's got an over-abundance of self-confidence.

It's hard for me to watch Ross wrestle though.  It actually makes me sick at my stomach (my Mom, who feels the same way I do about watching Ross wrestle, literally peed her pants at his first meet...true story...sorry Mom).

Courtney and I were back in the car by 8:30.

I think she was asleep by 8:35.

Drove back to Grants Pass (about 30 miles) and then out to my friends house to take her camera back to her (another 15 miles).

Courtney slept.

Almost home when Ross called and said that the bus was just pulling up at the High School.

Turned around and headed back to the High School.

Waited a good 20 minutes.

Dillan (Ross's best friend) needed a ride home.

Pulled into our driveway a few minutes before 10pm.

Thankfully, Josh didn't snore last night and was quiet when he left for work early this morning, so I slept in until 6am and had all four kids ready to go and out the door by 7am.

And another busy one today.

So busy in fact, that as I type, Coley (who doesn't have school again today) is doing his own laundry for the very first time.

Lot's of stuff.

1. I didn't make the transparencies with the brick design on them, those are by Hambly.

2. If you couldn't see a difference in color between the two photos of Annie that I posted yesterday, it is most likely either because you have a monitor that is color calibrated and/or because you are using a browser that allows Adobe RGB color profiles (which is a good thing).

3. Yes, I am shooting everything in Adobe RGB and then converting my photos to sRGB before I post them on my blog (I'm not converting the original file to sRBG, only the file that I am posting on my blog).

4. LCD screens (the little monitor on the back of your camera) can be off in color/exposure and so, it is important that you not rely on them (easier said than done...I totally rely on mine).  If there is consistently a big discrepancy between what you are seeing on your LCD monitor and the actual photo once you download it, I would give Canon a call and see if your camera needs to be sent in (800 828 4040...I just happen to have Canon on speed dial).

5. The image on the left is straight OOC ("out of camera" - meaning it is completely unedited).  I'm shooting RAW now (I know that I still need to explain that one of these days...), so I did all of the editing myself in ACR (Adobe Camera Raw).  The image on the right is the edited image.  I am also adding most of my vignetting (the dark border around the perimeter of my photo) in ACR now, however, you can find tutorials online (here's one for Adobe Photoshop CS3) that will show you how to create your own vignetting really easily.  If you have a different photo editing program and want to find out how to do it, just do a Google search using the words vignetting+photo+the name of your photo editing program.  Once you figure out how to do this, you can actually record each step of the process and save it as an "action" and you'll have your own vignetting action, where all you have to do is press the "play" button and it will go through all of the steps automatically for you (a huge time-saver).  There are also pre-made actions already available for vignetting.  I use totallyradactions.  If your vignette is too dark, you just have to decrease the opacity of it in your layers palette.

6. I shot that photo with my 50mm at f2.5 and 1/1000th of a second.

7. I ALWAYS save my original, unedited image (this is an automatic feature when you are shooting RAW, but I always made sure to save my original, unedited images when I was shooting JPEGS too), because there have been many times that I have color edited a photo and loved it, only to look at it six months later and say, "What were you thinking?".  But that's never a problem if you've got an original, unedited file to start over with with.

8. If you are looking for a good online photography forum, I would recommend ilovephotography.com.  They have a JSO (just starting out board) that you can join - tons of good info. over there.  They also have a professional board, but you have to be a pro to join it (makes me crazy that I can't join any pro forums because I don't have a business license and/or a photography website).  Someone also linked me up with this site too, which has some good info.

9. No, this whole post isn't about photography.

10. My new  FontWerks acrylic stamps should be in stores around the middle of December.

11. The cruise I am teaching on isn't until January 2009...January 11-17 (not 2008).  You can check it out here.  Donna Downey, Teresa Collins, Michelle Van Etten, Nicole Gunter, Margie Romney-Aslett and Heidi Swapp are teaching too.  Not sure how many spots they still have available, but I know they have a pre-payment plan since it's so far away.  And I've never been on a cruise before...really excited.

12. And if you're ordering Rose Petal Betty and want it before Christmas, Jill checked with the post office and they recommended that all Christmas orders be placed before December 17th.  These are my favorite new things at RPB.

13. I really do read every comment (although I think I sometimes I miss new comments on old posts)...and I really do appreciate them.

   

14. And a favorite from yesterday (in manual with my 50mm at f2.5, 1/400th of a second, ISO 100).

Adobe RGB vs. sRGB

Finally figured out why all my images are looking "grey-ish" on my blog.

A month or so back, someone recommended to me that I change the color space setting on my camera to Adobe RGB to capture a better range of colors in my photos and so I did.

Well...it turns out that the internet uses (for the most part) an sRGB color space and that when a photo with an Adobe RGB color space is posted on the web (which again, uses an sRGB color space), that the file because desaturated - especially the red tones (which would explain why all the skin tones in my photos have been grey-ish).

So, I can continue to shoot in Adobe RGB, but before I upload anything to my blog, I have to make sure to change it to sRGB (in Photoshop CS3 you go to Edit-Convert to profile-sRGB).

Took me half the day to figure that one out.

I posted this photo a few weeks back.

The first one is my Adobe RGB file (which looks fine when I edit it in Adobe Photoshop, but looks "grey-ish" and desaturated when I post it on the internet).

 

And this is the same photo after I converted it to sRGB.

Hoping that since I wasted half a day of my life trying to figure this out, that this will save someone half a day of their life by reading it.

Soooooo sad.

Annie goes in her playpen when she's being naughty.

And she hit me three times yesterday, so she was in there a lot.

I sing a little "Uh-oh, this is sooooo sad, looks like Annie has to spend a little time in the playpen because she hit her mom" song and then I plop her down in the playpen.

Yesterday when I was walking out of the room, I heard her say "Sooooo sad Yannie."

And then, when she was ready to get out, I heard her say "Be nishe" (be nice).

Tried to sneak that picture without her noticing, but she caught me.

Mill Creek Falls

Went hiking around Mill Creek Falls yesterday.

It's out in Prospect (for you local gals) and is an easy, kid-friendly hike.

And it's beautiful.

 

Packed a lunch and stopped to eat it in an area overlooking the falls where Cole & Courtney had a heated discussion over whether the crackers I bought were called wheat thins or thin wheats.

A fellow hiker took this one for us (thanks).

About 30 minutes into our hike, Annie had a major diaper blow-out (sorry, there's just no nice way of saying that) and since it's been so long since we've had one of those, I didn't think to pack a change of clothes.

And it wouldn't have been that big of a deal, except for the fact that it's late November in Oregon and she's got the croup (her doctor said that bundling her up and taking her outside would actually help with the cough though).

And while Josh and I were changing Annie's diaper (it was so bad that it took two of us), Courtney Lee was hopping on this log and took an unplanned  head-dive off the side of it.

And then Coley got mad about something (Coley is always mad about something) and took off to try and hide from us (except he was running straight toward a cliff).

So Coley got to hold his Dad's hand for awhile.

Looks like a lovely place to hike.

Hard to see, but Courtney had two giant mushrooms held up to her ears, pretending to be Princess Leah.

A giant mushroom fight.

This one might be my favorite shot of the day (took it one-handed, with the camera in my right hand and Annie in my left).

This kid isn't afraid of anything (which scares me).

Love this one too.

And the look on both of their faces (Courtney and Shelby) cracks me up.

That's a tired and cold Annie Bannie (wearing a sweatshirt as a pair of pants).

Coley was trying to hide and scare everyone.

Seeing this picture made me take Cole to get a haircut today.

Hard to get any pictures of this one since she was glued to me all day (she's a bit of a scaredy-cat).

Josh chasing Cole and Shelby with Annie in tow.

And then ice cream and pie at Beckie's.

And some sleepy kiddos on the drive home.

And whoever is anonymously posting comments about why Courtney is missing from photos and why she is excluded from family events...

We share custody of Courtney with her mom, which means that we have her for two weeks out of every month.

Not the easiest situation in the world, but we all work really hard to make it as successful and easy on her as possible.

And to be quite honest, I've never felt like the custody arrangements of my kids was something that I needed to make public on my blog.

But since some people find it necessary to pass judgment, I just thought that I should share all of the facts (because it sure is helpful to know all of the facts when you're passing judgment on people).

Although, I have to admit, that I find it hard to put too much stock in the opinion of someone who isn't even willing to put their name next to it.

All that said, ultimately, I keep this blog for my family.  I love being able to look back on the last two years of our lives in photos & words (and my family loves it too).

And those are the opinions that I take stock in.

Thankful.

Thankful for teachers who make Thanksgiving hats in class.

Thankful for that funny little heart shape she makes with her fingers to say I love you.

Thankful that I got this shot before he realized I was watching him.

Thankful for Easy Cheese.

Thankful that Josh cooked the Turkey.

Thankful for a few pre-game shots.

 

And a few pre-game poses.

Thankful for a sunny day (even if it made it hard to shoot in).

Thankful that I was a team captain and picked Jesse Ray to be on my team so that he couldn't tackle me like he did last year (even though we play touch football).

Thankful for Aunties and Cousins.

Thankful for lens flare.

And that Jesse Ray made a lot of touch-downs.

And for this great shot.

Thankful for this kid.

And for some post football hugs.

Thankful that the cops didn't show up and kick us off the field like they did last year (they were worried about us tearing up the field because it had been raining so much).

Thankful for these crazy shots.

I think Annie was thankful for all the bowls of crackers sitting out.

And for Grandma's Bev's lap.

Thankful for years of Thanksgiving dinners with my Uncle Donnie.

Thankful for 11 people at our 6 person table.

And everyone took a minute to talk about what they were thankful for too.

Thankful for a rowdy family.

Thankful for Annie's cheesy new smile.

And for my crazy Uncle Brad.

Thankful for a game of Guesstures.

And for brothers who love their little sisters.

Thankful that the girls team was ahead for at least two plays before the boys took us.

Thankful for a good score-keeper.

And for polka-dot footed jammies.

Thankful that Ross was on the girls team.

And for how cute Coley looks with missing teeth.

And for these two, asleep on the couch after everyone left.

Yannie.

1. There's nothing she loves more than her babies.

2. She calls her bald baby, "special baby".

3. She couldn't decide between the blond baby or the brunette baby while she was at the store with her Grandma Jo the other day...so Grandma Jo bought them both.

4. She just randomly hollers "Happy Annie" (or "Happy Daddy", "Happy Sissy", etc.).

5. Actually, she loves bananas more than babies.

6. She isn't happy unless she's eating something.

7. Whenever we ask her "What does a cat say?", she responds "Cat say!" (or "Dog say!", "Horse say!", etc.), even though she knows what sounds they make.

8. She never quits talking (just like everyone else in this house).

9. She's whiny, pitches lots of fits and slaps at Courtney and Coley whenever she's cranky.

10. She comes home from daycare everyday with paint on her shirt.

11. A close second to bananas (and babies) is almond butter sandwiches.

12. She can't say Annie, so she says "Yannie".

13. She loses her mind if I try to put a hat on her.

14. She loves to sing & dance (her favorite song right now is Alicia Keys, No One).

15. She won't go to bed at night unless she has a baby and a baby doll bottle with her (and sometimes I catch her sucking on the baby doll bottle).

16. She still asks for a ba-ba every morning when she wakes up...but she settles for a banana instead.

24 layouts.

I have scrapbooked less in 2007 than I have in any year since I started scrapbooking seven years ago.

24 layouts.

And not one of them was "just because"...they were all done with a specific purpose in mind (a class, a magazine, etc.).

That stinks.

Did this one awhile back to show as a sample layout in one of my classes.

Thanks goodness I teach classes, or I would never get any scrapbooking done.

Best of the West.

Coley's 3rd year of wrestling.

He's weighing in at a ferocious 49.3 lbs. (up 10 lbs. from last year).

Won this one.

Lost this one.

And the kid from his last match didn't show.

And the great thing about wrestling?...you get to spend 6 hours of your day hanging out in the bleachers waiting for three, 5 minute matches.

Shot everything with my 85mm at f2 in Aperture Priority mode with my ISO at 500.  Next meet, I think I'll increase my aperture to f2.8 so that I have a little more depth of field (depth of focus) and increase my ISO setting (so that I can still keep my shutter speed above 1/250th of a second).

And here's some more...

Lot's of random answers & stuff here lately.

And there's still more...

1. Stumbled across this today.  Me & Ross (my freshman year of college).

2. Coley only wears his Heely's to skate (he doesn't wear them otherwise) and I make him wear a helmet when he's on them.  We haven't had any major accidents, but he's had a tough time learning how to use them and the "newness" of them wore off pretty quickly (so I have a feeling he will outgrow them before I get my money out of them).

3.  Funny that I survived pogo sticks and bikes and steering little red wagons down steep hills, all without a helmet...but I make my kids wear them all the time.

4. It does take some time to get used to the focal length of the 85mm lens, especially on a camera with a 1.6 crop factor (most digital camera's have something called a 1.6 crop factor, so an 85mm lens on a digital camera with a 1.6 crop factor is actually a 136mm lens because 1.6x85=136).  The Canon 5D is a full frame camera (meaning it doesn't have a 1.6 crop factor), so an 85mm lens really is an 85mm lens on the 5D. 

Since most of the lenses I have are prime/fixed lenses (meaning they don't "zoom-in" or "zoom-out"), I had to get used to being the "zoom" (I walk forward to "zoom-in" and I walk backwards to "zoom out").  Takes some getting used to, but I think it's a good trade for the picture quality you get with prime lenses.

5. Yes, Annie wears a lot of dresses.

6. Do you still have a perplexed look on your face after reading #4?

7. If you are looking for my new acrylic stamps, you can order them directly from FontWerks, here and they are also part of the Annie add-on kit at Cocoa Daisy.  The exclusive stamps I did for Cocoa Daisy are sold out though and won't be offered again (sorry).

8. If you're shooting in Aperture Priority mode and and your photos are turning out blurry, it is because your shutter speed is too slow.  The only way to increase your shutter speed while you are in Aperture Priority mode is to either open your aperture wider (wider aperture = smaller number), to increase your ISO setting and/or to increase the light in the room (by opening curtains/doors or turning on lamps/lights).

9. I keep sitting down to type more info. on how aperture, shutter speed and ISO settings all work together (because I know there are lots of questions in regards to this), but it just isn't an easy explanation that I can fit into a paragraph or two.  In fact, that particular topic takes up a couple of hours of my photography lecture.  So hang in there if you're hoping for an online photography class - if all goes well, I'm shooting to offer it in March.

10. DigiDude - you're in luck (I got a 50mm Sigma macro not too long ago).

11. If you are trying to take pictures at night, you really need your camera on a tripod so that your shutter can stay open longer without camera shake/blurriness.  Unfortunately, a tripod won't prevent your subjects from moving though.  So if you're trying to take pictures of your dogs in their kennel strung with Christmas lights at night, I would actually recommend shooting at dusk rather than nighttime.  Unless your dogs are really good at sitting still though, you'll have to make sure your shutter speed is faster than 1/125th of a second.

12. And Josh Downs is on an airplane coming home from Chicago as I type (and it can't be soon enough for me).