Macro Monday

And this is why I didn't title my blog "Picture of the Day" this year. It's been about a week since my last post. Yikes! It's been a very busy week, though, so I kind of have an excuse. The yearbook is just about finished, and we hope to have a draft to the powers that be by Wednesday at the latest. I'm finally feeling better (that cold/sinus infection was nasty and really knocked me on my butt!) and am making it through the days without pharmaceutical help. Add to that the fact that Erin's on a short schedule at school for the rest of the week and that we leave on Friday for my parents' for spring break, and I guess you could say that life's looking pretty rosy right about now.

Anyway, this afternoon, my friend Kristi came by to work on the yearbook. Our plan was to merge her pages into my "master file," but for some reason, it didn't work. Her pages came through without any pictures on them - which kind of defeats the point of a yearbook, no? So we're going to try that again tomorrow. But in the meantime, Kristi had received a gift from the mail-gods today - a new lens! - so we made use of our downtime by heading out into my backyard to see what there was to photograph. My lovely purple flowers are in full bloom, so I spent a lot of time visiting with (and photographing) them. Yes, again. But I never get tired of it!

We also had some visitor, and I couldn't help but try to get good pictures of them as well. Not great, but I am still working on training them to sit still so I can get really amazing shots of them. All in good time...

From Chaos to Completion

For the second year in a row, I am one of the chairs of Erin's school's yearbook committee. If it sounds like a lot of work, it is. For most of the year, it's not that bad. It consists of being at school a lot with my camera to be able to capture things that are going on, whether it be special events and goings-on or just getting pictures of the different age kids in class or at recess. Last year we set up a separate Gmail email account so parents could easily get their own pictures to us, but many of them still submitted CDs of pictures. (For some reason, that didn't happen as much this year, which has created some shortages of pictures from different classes and grades, but that's another headache.) Early in the year, we ran a special project for the graduating 5th graders to have them create their own pieces of art to be included on the book's cover. That was completed in November, and from the proof we received from the publisher, it looks great!  Right now, though, for my partner-in-insanity, Kristi, and I, it's crunch time. We've been working really hard over the last few weeks to pull together and organize all of the photos and from them we're creating a 100+ page yearbook. The draft has to be ready to review next week! Yikes! Thankfully, I think we're in really good shape, and what we've done looks quite good. Tonight I'm taking the last of this year's photos, at the dress rehearsal for the Talent Show (the show itself is next week, so we use the dress rehearsal pictures instead), and over the next few days, the last of the pages will be put together. Next week, Kristi and I will merge what we've done into one final file, and in early April, it'll be sent to the publisher. We've already decided that once that happens, we're going out to celebrate - big time. I think we've earned it!

It's a Cat's Life

I grew up as a dog person. We got our first dog when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade, and with the exception of the two years that Jim and I lived in Gainesville in a very un-dog-friendly apartment complex, we've had a dog ever since. So it's a come as a huge surprise to most people that know me to find that I'm becoming a cat person now. I never thought I'd want to or like having a cat, but since we've had Mia, I've come not only to adore her, but to enjoy the amusement she brings to our lives every day. She's hysterical - the way she begs for food at the table when we're eating (guess she learned that one from Molly) or waits for a scrap of lunch meat when I'm making Erin's lunch each day (another thing she's learned from Molly), how she climbs on Jim's left shoulder (always the left, NEVER the right) and licks a spot on the back of his head (what's up with that?), or the way she likes to curl up in the bathroom sinks. She's just a funny puss. But I have to admit, she has a great life. And I think if I come back for another go-around at life, I'd like to come back as a cat so this could be my day...

Curl up in the comfy living room chair for a nice, long nap. Wake briefly from the nap to give myself a bath. First I'll start by rubbing my eyes.

Then I'll move on to licking my side.

 

Then I'll spend a little time on my back leg.

When I realize that I'm being observed, I'll attempt a look of utter contempt.

And finally I'll give up on the bath thing and curl up in a tight ball, ready for nap #312.

Doesn't that seem like a wonderful life? I thought so.

Oh, and because it's Monday, here's my submission for Macro Monday! I found another little bunch of these out by our front door, and caught them with the sun shining on them.

So Sweet

I frequently marvel at how wonderful a group I've become friends with here. I've never had problems making friends wherever we've lived, but this group is special. We're very close-knit, and are always there to help each other with whatever needs to be done. We joke about the saying, "It takes a village," but that's kind of how it is with us. This week, with my being sick, it's been so nice to know that Erin can get a ride home from school with this person, or that someone else can take care of things that I can't get to at school. Yesterday, one of my friends actually brought over dinner for us, and today another one brought me flowers. It's just very touching to know that this amazing group of women is always there for each other, no matter what is going on. You all know who you are, and know that I love each and every one of you! Anyway, before I get too sappy, here are some pictures of the beautiful flowers I received this afternoon. The person who gave them to me is a fellow photography nut, and I'm hoping she took the time to get some great shots of these before dropping them off!

This one might be one of my all-time favorite flower pictures!

And, not to be outdone, this morning (when I didn't even come downstairs), Erin apparently made me a get well card, and proceeded to have a bunch of people at school sign it! You'll have to click on the picture to enlarge it, but it has signatures from teachers, school staff, the principal, my friends, Erin's friends - everyone! This brought such a huge smile to my face, I can't even describe it!

Take Me Away!

I hate being sick. No, let me rephrase that: I deplore, despise, and utterly detest being sick. Thankfully it doesn't happen very often, but when it does, I fight it tooth and nail. I usually feel it coming on and immediately dive into any and all activities, almost willing myself not to succumb to the icky feelings. Sometimes it passes, but sometimes, usually around once a year (and ironically, usually right before I'm set to travel somewhere), I find myself losing the inevitable battle. And with my colds, they almost always turn into nasty sinus infections that can knock me flat. That's exactly what's been going on here for a few days now. Oh, it started out simply enough: late last week, I started feeling a scratchy throat, and my voice started to sound deeper and hoarse. Throughout the day yesterday, though, it turned into a nasty cold, and last night, I could barely sleep because I could barely breathe. Usually I fight it on my own for a while, but not this time. No, this morning, I visited the local Minute Clinic as soon as it opened. I have too much going on to be sick, and need to nip this in the bud as early as I can. Sure enough, and as I expected, it's already developed into a sinus infection, so I left with my new best friend: pink horse pills in the name of Amoxicillin that I get to enjoy twice a day for 10 days. (Why do they have to make these things so BIG?) I know from past experience that these work miracles for my sinus infections, and within a few days, I should be feeling a world better. In the meantime, I took it easy today, rarely getting off the sofa - very unusual for me. Hopefully by tomorrow I'll feel better enough to get on with all the things I need to get done. No time to be sick!

Games with Friends

It was a springtime Saturday today, so that means soccer! We finally got Erin's spring schedule this week, and I'm not sure if I should be happy or annoyed that every one of our games is scheduled for 8am. On one hand, it's nice because it gets our commitments over with early and we have the rest of the day free. But on the other hand, ugh. I mean, we get up early five days a week. Having to get up at almost the same time on Saturday, well, sucks. But oh well... This week, Erin found out that the team they were playing today was the one that three of her good friends are on. Hmmm... She had a lot of mixed feelings about that. Turned out, there were a lot of friends between the two teams, and it was funny to see how that affected the girls. They weren't quite as aggressive as they were last week, but their smiles were huge! The game ended in a 0-0 tie, and it was a really good game. Neither team walked away with bragging rights, but each had a great time.

Erin got ***this*** close to getting a goal this week! One of these games, she's going to get it in there, and BOY will we celebrate!

Blossoms

The bathroom restoration continues. Today, my friend from Monday came back to (hopefully) finish the job. He's been hard at work in that tiny room since around 10:00 this morning sanding, hammering, and priming. With a little luck, by the end of the day, we'll once again have a working bathroom! In the meantime, I'm pretty much stuck at home. I don't mind, because I certainly have enough to do, including a looming deadline to complete my portion of Erin's school's yearbook. I worked on that for a few hours this morning, and then decided to look for a picture opportunity for the day close to home. I'm grateful that my neighbors have planted some lovely flowers in front of their homes, and took the liberty of grabbing some pictures of them. I'm just glad that nobody came home to find me sitting on their walkways!

Flying Free

Science Week continued at school today, with the main attraction being the paper airplane competition held at lunch recesses. Some of these kids built AMAZING airplanes, with one traveling around 70 feet! After taking pictures of that and a few other events, I found myself with a few friends in front of the school, waiting for the final bell to ring. We looked up and saw two hawks circling above us. (No, not waiting to snatch one of us!) I still had my camera with me, so I figured I'd try to get a few shots of it, even though I didn't have my big zoom lens with me. These birds were so incredibly graceful and beautiful, it was a joy to watch them soar!

Science is Fun!

I have blogged before about how wonderful Erin's school's Science Lab program is. We are truly fortunate to have a wonderful teacher, Carol Stocksdale, who dedicates so much time and effort to making this program such a success. This week at school is Science Week - a week full of activities that prove how much fun science can be - and today were two big activities. First, Erin's class got to participate in the 5th grade Bubble-ology lab. Who doesn't like bubbles, right? The kids' first task was to blow bubbles on a table and measure how big they were. Some of the kids made HUGE bubbles! Erin's were a pretty good size, once she figured out how to keep the liquid in the straw long enough to get it to the table's surface.

After the kids did a few rounds of this, then the real fun started. They were given trays of soapy water and different "tools" to blow bubbles of various sizes.  An unexpected fun aspect to this was that it was recess time for the preschoolers, and they had a great time trying to chase down and catch the bubbles that the big kids were blowing over the fence at them!

 

The fun continued at each grade's lunch recess. It was the much anticipated Eggstronaut Challenge. Each student was invited to wrap an egg in something to protect it, and our fantastic principal (dressed as a mad scientist) along with her helper (Dr. Frank N. Stein) threw them off the roof of one of the portable classrooms to see which ones survived. 

Some of the kids were really creative with their solutions. Some of them (like the one that just put the egg in a ziplock bag of water - which proceeded to explode when it hit the ground, showering the nearby kids with sadness) seemed hell-bent on seeing how they could make the biggest mess. But it was great fun for everyone who watched!

Manual Macro Monday

It's been one heck of a day. Rushed home after drop off at school to wait for the workmen to come to start reconstructing our downstairs bathroom. (We had a small but destructive leak last week, which had left the bathroom looking like this:

Yes, that's the sink in the shower. The toilet's in the garage. My patience with running upstairs each time I need to you-know-what is in the trash.) Anyway, they were supposed to be here at 8am. At 9:15, I called them and left a message. At 11:00, the guy finally showed up. And had to leave again to go get the insulation he wasn't told he'd need. So I've been stuck at home all day listening to him patch walls and screw in drywall, which made getting a picture today something of a challenge and left me with a headache THIS BIG.

I finally got up and wandered outside to see what I could find. Using the knowledge I gained in my class on Friday, I switched my camera's dial to the scary M setting, adjusted what needed adjusting, and pressed the shutter. I have to say, I was quite pleased with the result!

A Day of Learning

W-A-Y back in October, I signed up for an all-day photography workshop that included a 2-hour "safari" to practice what was taught in the class. I couldn't wait to go, and was really looking forward to having some "ah-ha!" moments as my knowledge of this hobby expanded. Today was the day! I dropped Erin off at school and headed up to Newport Beach to the hotel where the class was being held. The class started out with the basics - camera settings, ISO, aperture, shutter speed, etc. - and I was thrilled to realize that all of my work that I've been doing by myself had already given me a good understanding of those aspects of photography. Later in the morning, he spent time talking about metering (one of those areas that has left me confused and baffled up to this point) and composition. I left the morning session feeling both validated and that I'd gained enough new knowledge to make the time worthwhile.

After lunch, it was time for the safari. We met in the atrium of the hotel, where our host gave us a series of assignments to go out and shoot, using settings that he prescribed. After doing that with a few different groups of settings, we moved outside as a group to get lessons in panning and to experiment more with metering. It was great to see how a shot would change based on what was metered ("duh" for more experienced photographers, I know, but as I said, this part was pretty new to me). I also found myself answering questions for some of the more confused members of our group, further making me feel like I actually know something about all this stuff.

Here are a few of the photos I kept from the day!

A few from inside the atrium.

Some of the group got really into their depth of field assignment, taking pictures of something on the floor.

A few shots from our assignments outdoors.

And one of our group lined up to practice panning (as our instructors ran by us over and over and over). It was quite a large group!

And finally, a picture that wasn't taken by me, but that was sent to me in response to the post I'd made last month about the drivers around Erin's school.You can't tell from this picture, but yes, the driver had parked his car right next to the sign that said there is no parking there during the time he had parked there. <Sigh...> I don't even have the energy to talk about this one, for a variety of reasons.

26 Things # 15 - News

Yes, it's a new month, and that means a new list of 26 things to work through!

Today I attended a PTA meeting at school, and it was the annual meeting when next year's executive officers were elected. When we lived in New Jersey, I didn't have the opportunity to be involved in Erin's school as I was working full-time. Since moving here (and becoming an economic statistic - i.e. unemployed), I've taken advantage of being able to be at her school as much as possible, and have become quite involved in the PTA. I've heard horror stories about PTAs for years. In many of my friends' kids' schools, the PTA (or PTO) is plagued with problems ranging from political issues to general witchiness among the members and officers, and many of my friends have stated that they'd rather have a root canal than be involved with the organizations in their kids' schools.

At Erin's school, however, the PTA is a truly amazing organization. Not only is there none of the cattiness that can be found at other schools' groups, but it's just the opposite. Here you have a group of (mostly) women that are really dedicated to the school and making positive contributions there. I have no idea how many hours we all spend volunteering at the school and for our own PTA projects, but it's in the thousands. We have incredible fundraisers (including a huge Halloween carnival each year) that allow us to basically provide all of the classroom's technology (laptops for the teachers, smart slates, LCD projectors), science/music teachers' salaries, and other programs that help make our school great. I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to work with these great (mostly) women for the last two years, and although I won't be at the school next year, I know that these new leaders will no doubt do great things!

My Little Girl's Growing Up

Today was the end of an era.

Way back in 2005, we bought Erin a dollhouse for her vast Barbie collection. It wasn't an "official" Barbie house, but rather one made of wood (instead of plastic) with wood and cushioned furniture. It had three floors plus an attic, and it matched her purple and pink room perfectly. It was a dream house for a little girl like Erin, and she and her friends spent countless hours playing with it.

When we moved to California at the end of 2008, I asked Erin if she wanted to bring the dollhouse with us. She refused to be parted with it, so on the moving truck it went, and we set it up in her new room. She still played with it, mostly when her friends came over, so all was good. When we gave away some of her toys last year, I again asked her if she was ready to part with it. Nope. So it stayed. It also stayed through our redecorating of Erin's room earlier this year, and although she's talked about changing her room some when she starts middle school next year, she made no mention of removing the dollhouse.

This morning, when we got to school, a friend of mine asked me if we might want a chair that she'd recently taken out of her own daughter's room (Taylor is in high school and needed something more conducive to studying). It was in her car, so we went and looked at it. I had seen it yesterday in their garage, and I knew Erin would go crazy for it, so I wasn't surprised when upon seeing it, she gave a yelp of divine happiness and asked if she could have it. I asked her where she was going to put it, and she said she'd take the dollhouse out and put the chair there. Wow... For all the times I'd asked her if she wanted to give away the dollhouse, I was caught off guard when she actually said she was ready.

This afternoon, Erin and I went up to her room to empty the dollhouse and move it into the guest room. (No, we're not going to keep it there for guests to play with; it's a temporary spot until it goes to its new home, where it'll be enjoyed by Erin's teacher's three daughters.) It was kind of sad, and Erin was somewhat quiet while we were doing it. But once it was moved out, and the new chair was moved in, she was beyond happy, and she said that she loved how grown-up her room looks now. In fact, she's been up in her room for a while now, no doubt curled up in her new chair.

Yep, my little girl's growing up.  <Sniff... sniff...>