Photoshop Fun

 

I had a lot of fun photographing London the other afternoon.  Almost as much fun was playing around with Photoshop and editing some of my favorites!  Thanks to Christine for hanging out with your laptop and answering all of my questions as we fiddled around with the Photoshop tools!!!!  Here are some of the pics Christine edited.  London doesn’t need Photoshop to enhance her loveable face, but it was fun for her mom nonetheless:)

As you can see we were having fun playing around with some brushes creating flourishes all over the place:)

This would be my personal favorite.

Overexposed but sweet.

Above you see the same picture, one in “color-pop” and the other in sepia. 

No editing needed;)

Blueberry Picking

Well it’s that time again…to pick blueberries….or for some little ones, to EAT blueberries.  Every summer the kids and I head over to a local blueberry patch and pick (and eat:)) blueberries.  This particular day was our 3rd trip out to the patch as each week brings a new variety of blueberries so we’ve enjoyed trying  each variety.  This trip we were pleased to be accompanied by the cousins!!!!  We had a great time despite the 90 degree heat! 

Corn

We have an annual tradition of traveling down to my in-laws with Joe’s brother’s family to “put up corn”.  A family down the road plants a large crop of sweet corn every year and allows us to pick it for nothing!  The only catch is that when corn is ready, you have to put it up then.  So on Sunday it was time.  We all made the trek down to their house to get it done.  I believe it took us 4 hours and we were able to take home 26 quart bags of corn per family.  It was a very successful evening!

Joe

“For the Lord grants wisdom!  From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. 

He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest.  He is a shield to those who walk with integrity. 

He guards the paths of the just and protects those who are faithful to him.”

Proverbs 2:6-8

 Happy birthday to my husband!

 

As Solomon stated in Proverbs, the Lord blesses those who live with honesty, integrity, and faithfulness.  My husband is a living example of this in my life.  I am thankful for the example that he is to me and our children.  He has chosen to lead our family as God commanded a husband to do .  He is known for his honesty and integrity as well as his heart for Jesus.  His job is a difficult one.  I applaud men who lead their families “with a strong hand” and “stand up” where we can’t as the song Lead Me by Sanctus Real states, this is no easy task.  (Click on the title to enjoy the song!)

I know without a doubt that I am the love of his life, as he has chosen to love me as Christ loved the church, and for that I am forever grateful…I am truly blessed.

A Thief in the Night

 I enjoy wild animals as long as they stay where they belong…away from me.  This little guy, and his/her siblings, have been making a mess of our little patch.  We discovered that something was getting into our closed dog food containers.  When we arrived home from fireworks on the 4th we found 4 raccoons feasting in our trashcans in our garage.  Now one might think closing the garage door would be the obvious fix.  That, my friends, is not an option at this point as we do not have a garage door.  We should within the month, but for now we have to get rid of these destructive rodents.  I agree he looks like a helpless pet that belongs in Over The Hedge, but if you could see what he/she is capable of you too would be ready to be rid of it.

Joe took on 3 of the raccoons with a hoe while the rest of us remained in the truck shouting out instructions as we saw them peek out behind the freezer, stove, or trashcans.  All of the kids were feeling sorry for the large rodent while Harrison was saying, “Just chop his tail off.”  We did not manage to catch any that evening, nor did we the following evening as we returned to fight them off with a couple of garden hoes.  We finally wisened up and borrowed the neighbors live trap and we awakened this morning to this.  It turned out to be a success as you can see, although I know we have at least 3 more to go.

A Little Respect

Let me preface this post with the fact that we are back from vacation…thus the reason for no posts in the past week!!! We arrived safely home on Sunday, June 27th and the past week has been a whirlwind. So, I am rewinding to finish off my vacation.

I am taking this post to hop on my soap box about road respect. Notice the picture above. That is us…32 feet of travel trailer, plus 20 feet of suburban, plus a couple or so feet of hitches. This adds up to a grand total of a minimum of 54 feet! These contraptions are NOT easy to maneuver in tight places. On our way from Holiday World to Cincinnati we managed to take a wrong turn ending up in some local town with winding roads and strip malls. We got turned around and back on the road and eventually made it to our destination, not without the air going out on the truck and a little stress trying to get the thing turned around and back on a main highway.

So, for those of you who ever encounter large vehicles PLEASE have a little respect. Do NOT weave in and out around them, do NOT cut them off, do NOT hang out in their blind spots, DO give them a little extra room to get over, do NOT slam on your brakes in front of them as they are pulling a lot of weight and it isn't easy to stop quickly...besides, they're bigger than you are, DO know that they are doing their best to drive this massive bit of metal without getting in an accident.

Holiday World Day 2

In my exhaustion from long days and late night blogging, I somehow missed posting our day at Holiday World’s waterpark, Splashin’ Safari. If you are a fan of waterparks, this one was a definite winner. It helps that it was around 99 degrees that day, so how can you go wrong when you are surrounded by water attractions???

There were several water playground type areas with slides for various ages, buckets to fill and dump, nets to climb, and spraying fountains. Add to that two large wavepools, several large slides, and a relaxing lazy river and you have another fun day.

Taking turns with the older kids on the Raging Rapids…

Waiting her turn…again…

One of several water playgrounds.

London’s turn

Racer slides

Sunkissed and waterlogged…enjoying some funnel cake.

I now understand why my parents were always quick to lick my ice cream cones on the boardwalk. Picture a 4 year old and 22 month old holding soft serve ice cream cones(in a cake cone which melt with your ice cream) in 99 degree heat. It was a mess. London likes to take small licks too! It was melting much faster than she was eating it.

Ice cream is a great way to end the day.