Cats & more practicing

My life is really boring. I finished a 15 page paper on Saturday and have been reading books I enjoy ever since! I have a final on next Wednesday and then I'm done with school. Kinda. I haven't been able to get any results from a model I need to run for my thesis. Therefore, I will not be graduating in May, I will be graduating in August. I'm hoping to get some results tomorrow and then I'll be off and running an finishing up the last 2 chapters of the thesis. I'm kinda stalled since I don't have any results and have the first 3 chapters pretty much done, so I wait until I get some results. In the meantime... It's a wonder I have any clean cloths. The stupid cat seems to think that since they are clean, she can lay on them. grrrrrr. Of course I had to get a picture before I chased her off :)I take Riddick for a walk pretty early in the morning and am always impressed with the great lighting that our neighborhood gets. So I go around taking pics, trying to improve my picture taking skills. I managed to figure out that I needed to change more than one of the parameters on my camera before I try some of the things I wanted to try. So this is my attmept after changing a BUNCH of settings. I got the idea for macro pictures from Pioneer Woman, the link is on the right. love that blog!! I learn lots about how bad I am at photography from that one :) It rained the night before our walk so I tried to capture the raindrops on the leaves and the flowers. Some vape out better than others. This one is a little washed out, but it still looks kinda cool. Too bad I can't go back out and try it again, I think I know just how to fix it. The crappy part about these is that I tried several settings, AND checked the screne to see what they looked like. Even with the "see right now" feature I couddn't figure out if it was good or not. All I could tell is whether it was horrible or not. The random tulips in our yard, I think there are about 4 total. But they're pretty
And this would be the one of the Bleeding Heart bushes that the chipmunks haven't eating from the bottom up. Love this plant! As you can see, it looks kinda yellow, even though I was outside. Not sure why. Changed a few settings cause I did notice that on the screen on the camera, but when I changed various settings it came out all kinds of funky. will have to work on that.

1/4 of a cow

I'm pretty talkative today :) sorry you have to read so much! Sean and I went in with some friends and purchased a 1/4 of a cow. Grass fed, no drugs, yummy meat. Although, I have to say, the meat isn't as good as some we got from Ashtabula fair one year from Al. And Sean (the chef, that has some training cutting meat) says the butcher sucked and didn't so such a great job. But anyway. We got these HUGE soup bones, and I mean HUGE!! So Sean is cooking up some beef stock for us to put in the freezer.

These are the bones, after Sean has roasted them and is waiting for the veggies.

As you can see, the pictures are all yellow. Another great example of my photography skills. sigh. I tried to change the white balance, but they turned out this horrid blue color, and made the food look really gross, so i switched it back, it looks better yellow :)

I suck at taking pictures

I've been trying to get a picture of this tree with the bush under it for the past week. It's is beautiful and every time I leave the house to walk the dog I am amazed by it. So, I have tried to get a picture to capture the awesomeness of it. I have failed. seriously. As you can see in the background the sun is just coming up and can be seen through the blossoms, tried to get that, but failed there too. sigh. So I thought, the next day, maybe I should get closer up. That might capture the whole purple/white color thing and the perfect lighting. yeah.Failed again. As you can see, the purple flowers in the front are blurry. The next one I changed the settings on, and the sun shining on the branches is really cool. buuuttttttttt, it just doesn't capture it. Needless to say, I don't think I will be hanging up the engineering anytime soon, and switching to photography. nope, can't get it. And the blog wouldn't be complete without a picture of my dog :) I was sitting on the ground when I took this, I think it came out okay. Too bad I was trying to get better pictures of something else. ha. such is my life!

Finishing the masks

The paper mache that we did last weekend was dry this weekend, so the girls got to finish their projects. Sean got the idea from something he had done in school a LONNNGGGG time ago :) Here he is working with Abby on her mask. This is Sabrina's. Notice it doesn't have a mouth. This really bothered Sean and he really wanted to put one on there, but Sabrina and I convinced him to leave it alone. This is what Abby's looks like. She's a little more willing to go along with her dad than Sabrina is. Although it was her idea to put the cheeks on and the tongue sticking out. Mine needs more paper mache stuff, but since we have no flour in the house, well, mine will have to wait.

Next week we paint. As long as the clay stays stuck to the paper mache. I have no idea what we will do with these once they are done. hmmm.

Fun things to do on a lovely Saturday

Start with a lovely walk in the words at the nearby park. Although Sean forgot our water and snack, and we had to depend on the girls water bottles for us, them and the dog...so luckily it was a short walk. kinda :) No matter what, one of them ALWAYS picks up a stick. What is it with kids and sticks? :)

Poor Riddick was sooo thirsty when we got done, he was drinking right out of the spigot, but Sean tried to give him a "bowl" to help him out. Yeah, the dog bowl was in the pack that Sean forgot too. After our lovely walk without water, we came home and had FHE, although in our house it's Family Home Afternoon, since that is when the girls are here. And this was the activity. Of course, only Sean would come up with something so messy, when he KNOWS I'm not the neatest person when it comes to fun crafty stuff. jeezAnd this is what 3 balloons look like when you put paper mache on them. The idea is, when they are done drying, to use them as a mold for clay to make a clay mask. I figured I could just make the mask outta paper mache and be done with it. I'll probably have to do another layer, but eh, for now, it work. Oh, and this is what we do with our left over flour in the house, since I'm allergic to wheat and we can't use it in anything. Well, here ya go :)

Trouble in River City

Wow, i'm a blogging slacker, my life is really foring or I'm REALLY busy. Hmm, must be one of those :) Now that spring has arrived and the daffodils are showing their pretty little faces....We have other issues. There are little critters in our yard that seem to think they have the run of the place. Yeah. this is one of their entrances. And here is just ONNEEEE of their tunnels. Our yard is riddled with these things. This is the best one that I could get a picture of. The yard is like walking on a sponge cause there are so many holes under the topsoil. Anyone know of a good quick, lethal way to get rid of chipmunks? shhh, don't tell the kids we are trying to kill Alvin and his buddies.This is another one of the spring flowers in our yard.

And this is my new boyfriend :) His name is Rocco, and he is soo cute! Especially with the bunny ears.