Giant Chess Game

My clever sons made this chess game out of a quilt and Duplos:

12 Years Old

My first born son is 12 today!  Here are a few photos over the years:

As a baby

Almost 2

4 years old

6th birthday

8 yrs old

9 yrs old

11 yrs old

My list of things to do, in no particular order

I have so many projects and chores swimming around in my head, I thought I'd post them here.  I don't want to just write a normal to do list, I might get overwhelmed.  But it does help to clear one's mind, at least for a little while, to write it somewhere.

Work on quilts

learn photography

take portraits of boys

haircuts for boys

learn about soil and fix ours

adjust curtain rods

clean van

fix trailer to sell

find  a good Bible study

read Bible

plant more flowers

pull up ugly bushes

organize garage....again

fix bike tire

take more pictures

put picures in photo album which is backlogged from 2003

plan school

buy school supplies and books

buy bookshelves

remove wallpaper from kids' rooms

paint kids' rooms

shampoo carpet

go camping

oil change

laundrysweepmopvacuumdustfridgewindows

organize schoolroom better

file

clean off desk

plan a menu

cook

buy clothes for kids

read to kids

read, and finish, my homeschooling books

play games

paint with kids

teach kids to do their chores better

learn about herbs

eat healthier

go swimming

go bike riding

volunteer for outreach with church

get up earlier!

weed, weed, weed

clear off back patio

dust fans before the fan guy comes to fix them!

Well, time to get started!

Giant Pizza!

We went out for pizza yesterday, after seeing Nim's Island at the movies.  It was huge, 30"!:

 

Photography: A History

For as long as I can remember, I have loved taking pictures.  I finally got my first camera when I was 12.  It was a Polaroid, the kind that, right after you took the picture, you had to pull a white tab, then pull the picture.  Then you had to wait a few minutes, and  then peel the picture off of the chemical papers.  As soon as you pulled the white tab out, another one took it's place, so if you weren't paying attention, you would pull the second white tab out, losing a good picture paper.  But I took lots of pictures with it, I loved it!  Here I am, Christmas day 1974, taken with my brand new Polaroid:

During high school, I upgraded (?) to a Kodak Instamatic. I bought it with Blue Chip Stamps!   You had to be very still, or the picture would be blurry. I had a bad habit of taking a picture and  quickly moving the camera from my face afterwards.   I have lots of blurry photos of my high school friends :(  The camera got stolen from my friend's car, I wonder what kind of pictures I lost, I've forgotten.   Here is a picture of blurry me at school, about 1978:

For my high school graduation, I got a Canon AE-1.  A REAL camera!  I was so happy!  I have albums and albums filled with photos from that camera.  Pictures of friends, family, weddings, babies, kids, holidays, vacations, mission trips to Hawaii, Cook Islands, and Thailand.  I had the same camera at Bible school, almost 20 years later, where I met my future husband.   It was faithful to take good pictures of my first couple of babies. 

Raratonga, Cook Islands, with YWAM,1988:  (mmmm, I can almost smell those fragrant flowers!)

Falling in love at Bible School, 1992:

 

My first baby, 1995:

 

The trouble is, I never really learned to use the camera the way I could have.  I even took a photography class in college.  I just didn't get it.  Aperture, Fstop, exposure, iso, film speed.  Ugh.  I just wanted to take pictures.  For our final, we were supposed to make a box camera.  Too hard, I didn't do it.  I didn't pass.  But, afterall, the AE in my camera meant Automatic Exposure.  Why take it off auto pilot if I don't have too. So, I never learned. I tried, I really did.  I understood a little, but I wouldn't use it, so I lost it.  Then the photos starting having black shadows.  It was over.  I had to get a new camera.  I got a Canon Rebel sometime in the late 90s.  Again, I never really learned all of the fancy stuff I could have done with it.  But I have hundreds and hundreds of pretty good photos of my babies as they grew. 

My oldest son, 2002:

Then, the age of computers and digital photography arrived.  At first, we used our video camera for digital pictures.  We later realized that the quality wasn't very good at all.

A, 2002:

A couple of years ago, we finally bought a Canon Powershot digital, which was a lot of fun.  I took lots of pictures, though, I seem to have a harder time  getting them printed and organized into a photo album.  (Or it could be that I am now homeschooling 5 kids!)

B, 8th bday, 2007:

It was a fine camera, the Canon powershot.  I loved how small it was, fit easily into a bag, or onto my belt.  It was so small, I lost it last spring at a school field trip.  I would  post pictures of that, but they got lost, too.  :(  So after a few weeks without a good camera...oh, about the Canon Rebel, I would still use it now and then, but the battery seemed to die a lot.  I finally figured out that the Autofocus broke.  I will look into getting it fixed, for my daughter, maybe.  But then, it isn't digital!  As I was saying, after a few weeks without a camera, and wondering if we should get a good digital, we went ahead and bought a Canon Powershot again, but a little more up to date. 

It does take pretty good pictures:

S, 2008:

But when it came to taking pictures of fireworks, I was quite disappointed.  I mean, have you seen the PioneerWoman.com's fireworks photos? 

Here is mine, 4th of July, 2008:

I was beginning to regret our purchase.  E and I wished we had bought a better, SLR camera (interchangeable lenses).  So we took it back to the store.  But first, we had to have our replacement, so we bought a Nikon D40 with an 18-55mm lens AND a 55-200 mm zoom lens.  I am determined to learn all I can about this camera.  I know that talent is a biggie in great photography, but knowing how to use the camera properly has got to be a very big part of it!  I have been poring over the owner's manual.  One of my goals is to be able to take my own portraits of my kids.  The kind you can hang on the wall, but aren't from the studio.  I have a lot to learn, but this is what I did this weekend:

And remember that baby from back in 1995?  Here she is in 2008:

When I sent these to Costco, they touched up the colors, so we will see how they turn out.  My plan is to learn Photoshop to fix them up just the way I want.  The Pioneer Woman has inspired me to learn! 

The Preamble

I forgot to add that we watched America Rock from School House Rock.  I particularly love the song The Preamble, I get choked up everytime!  I just found the song and cartoon on YouTube  tried to get it linked here, but couldn't figure it out.  Here are the words:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

I Found Your Camera blog

My friend just told me about this blog.  Since I had lost my camera in May, I checked it out.  I didn't see any of my pictures, but thought I'd pass it along.  The more people know about this website, the more people will find their lost cameras and pictures.

 ifoundyourcamera.blogspot.com