Don't be afraid

Another thing I don't do very often is up the aperture.  I upped the aperture to f13 (which really means making the opening in the lens smaller) for this photo so then I had to increase my ISO to 800 to get more light into the lens, in the bright sunlight!?!?!!? 

I read many times that you shouldn't be afraid to increase your ISO.  ISO is your friend...... but I am a perfect example of trying to keep it as low as I can. 

I got outside my box and created this image.  I'm no longer afriad....I actually might like it..... thank you for helping me :)

What???????

The flowers are in focus from the front to the back of the photo, there is no blurring.

Sepia + Happy Tuesday

I like sepia photos, I am going through hundreds of wedding photos so I thought I'd share my favorite (so far) of the sepia photos. 

The one thing that will bring the happy bride to tears....... seeing her daddy!  There is something about those dad's and their little girls wearing a wedding dress.

Happy Tuesday

More wedding photos + Happy Tuesday

Doing some editing tonight and I didn't think you would mind a few more pics from the wedding this weekend. 

This photo is so right for the weather we are having.  I actually love the heat but most of the population could use a cool down time and this was the bride during her cool down moment.

If you didn't notice the bride is wearing two different dresses..... the first dress was worn until she hid away to change and make her second appearance in "her" wedding gown during the grand march.  Both dresses were beautiful but it could have been the girl inside the dress : )   The unique details this bride brought to her wedding were remarkable, she wanted their day to be special and that it was.  I enjoyed the entire day and loved watching the beginning of a long marriage.

Weddings make me happy and I have 4 more this year..... :)

Soccer game

I watched the girls soccer game tonight and loved it, the action that happens in this sport rocks!!  Last year watching Elly's soccer games were fun and I could have watched them every night but these girls know their sport.  So many times they took a really fast hard ball to the gut, their head, their chest and kept on moving, I'm not really sure but pretty sure that one of those balls would have hit me I would have been in the fetal position with a white flag waving above my head.   John knows their coach very well and you can just see it from the side lines that he lives, breaths and talks soccer.  What he has done with these girls is rewarding for all of them and himself.   You have to wonder when seeing the coach give the half time speech what is really happening over there, too bad I don't have a mic on this lens.

Now for some action shots.

I was working really hard to capture a shot to the head and I got it, wrong team by hey I'll take what I get.  Our girl kicked it right at her, now look how close they are..... don't tell me you wouldn't be on the ground with me waving your own white flag.

Soccer makes me happy and I can't wait till next week when Elly starts.

Proud Parents

This week is Adam's final week of school and he passed all his classes! {insert loud squeal here} He graduates this Saturday and I cannot tell you how proud we are of him. The person he has become is amazing from what we were told by the teaching experts of the school when he was in grade school and middle school. When he entered his Freshman year of High School he could read at a 2nd grade level, the chances of him graduating were slim, another scare was that he would turn 18 before his Senior year and with the frustrations of not being able to read and write like other kids his age he would probably drop out and there was nothing we could do about it. We plugged on with our love, support and guessing parenting skills, even though this was our 3 child they were all different and your skills have to change with everyone of them. Our excitement came when Adam got a D on his report card vs an F. We rewarded him for C's, tried to discipline the best we knew how about the food fight he started, dealt with the bus issues (I'll never forget the bus driver chewing me out in the credit union about how horrible my son was and all the customer staring at me), and gave him space to grow. It worked, he graduated and attended technical school in the welding program. Technical school hasn't been a bed of roses either, many bumps in this last year. Failed a class the first semester, ran our of money, difficulties with friendships, living alone away from home, missing the girlfriend, and lack of cooking skills he lost the freshman 15 instead of gaining it, and he didn't have it to lose. Today he called me while taking his welding test to ask me to make him a haircut appointment, we chatted and then he said he needed to go back to taking his welding test, I said " I love you sweetie, and good luck" he says "I love you too". That made my day even if he didn't pass his test, but he did and he's graduating in 4 days. The buttons are popping off our shirts, we are so proud of him....... but...... there is always a but....... my baby is growing up, I need someone to take care of, someone to need me, someone to come home and say "mom I'm home, mom I'm home..... MOM I'M HOME".   Anyone want to move in with us?

Now for the POTD, of course it's about Adam and what else would it be but his pride and joy.

Yep it's still in our yard and it runs, the stacks on the trunk work they blow black smoke which he thinks is cool, Michelle says keep the windows open cause the inside fills up with smoke too. If this isn't my brothers rubbing off on him I don't know what is, sometimes I think I'm still a kid living at home with my brothers. So let's tell a story about my brothers and cousins. So Wally, Rusty and Loren had this car that they cut the roof off to make a convertible. They drove around town in their new convertible and it was painted kinda like Adam's car and they thought they were cool. Later that night they parked the car by the highway with a NOT FOR SALE sign on it. I woke up and wondered why they would burn that car so close to the road but they do stupid stuff so I watched it for awhile. I then decided I should ask Wally about it so I wandered out to his garage bedroom and asked about the fire....... FIRE!!! Let’s just say the fire trucks greeted my mother and father as they returned home after working at the bar.  All us kids sat on the steps and watched it burn.   The car wasn't supposed to be on fire but a spark from them cutting off the roof got into the seat and hours later started the car on fire. Wally still tells this story to everyone along with calling me by my nick-name that I won't mention on here. A couple weeks ago I see him in the bar and he yells __________. How embarrassing.... this is my Adam, he is all Wally!!

He even has a girlfriend that helps him be Wally...... and we love her for that.

Congratulations Adam we love you and are very proud of you.  Also thank you to Michelle for helping him believe in himself, without you this may not have happened.  We love you both.

Happy Club Time

Tonight was our first Photography Club Meeting......  so we are calling it.  There are just a few of us that got together to talk photography, cameras, lens, settings..... and it was so much fun.  We learn from each other along with enjoying each others company and having a girls night out doing what we love.  We spent about the first hour talking and then headed outside to practice metering.  Here is my favorite photo from the night (love the blur).

The next two are the different metering shots the shot on the left I metered off the sky which makes the exposure very light.  The shot on the right I metered off the barn which darkens up the sky and makes the barn a really dark red. 

Both photos are SOOC and both I would considered good photos but what a difference. Wanna come have fun with us? Send me an e-mail and I'll share the details.

For Happy Tuesday - Photography Club makes me happy and I can't wait for the next one.  Now it's time for a couple glasses of home-made wine to counter act the glass of soda I had.

He melts me

Mussy stuff coming in this post.... for the weak, stop reading now. 

Whenever this man puts on a tie I melt.  I forget all the times he didn't listen to the GPS on the way here, I forget all the times he got in my way while packing the suitcases, I forget all the times he asked me if I had everything packed,  I forget all the times he got frustrated when I told him to follow the GPS and not think she's stupid...... I forgot that he wouldn't call his brothers to find out where they were, I forgot that he made me carry most of our stuff up to our room,  I forget everything except how much I love this man and how he makes me melt.  I look at him in a tie and I'm mush.  It's amazing how after 27 years of marriage and one simple tie with a silver button down shirt completely makes me forget all the disagreements and all I can think about it how much I love him.    This man is a wonderful son, brother, uncle, cousin, friend, husband, a great father and one heck of a grandfather and he still makes me melt.

John was a pallbearer for his Uncle Louie.  I watched as he and the others did their job so proudly, I have always had lots of respect for the men in the family to be picked for that honor but what a difficult job it must be.  Louie was a Navy veteran so there was a military 21 gun solute, I have never been to a military service and what a moving experience it was.   Louie rest in peace and we'll continue to keep his family in our prayers as they work through these difficult months ahead.

Okay now onto a couple funny stories just because we need humor in our lives.  So John's dad is the oldest of the family and for 86 he is doing very well and looks great.  At the wake I'm sitting next to dad and someone comes up and tells him how great he looks and he says "Everyone tells me that but I don't feel so great"  How old are you Gilbert?  "86 and that's a long time to live"...... at the funeral Jeannie tells Aunt Eddy she looks great and Eddy says "looks are decieving, I don't feel so great".... they crack me up becasue they really do look good!  Now we all know that Gilbert has to fight with his sisters all the time, so Eddy was mad at Gilbert today before she even seen him, he made her mad.  :)  When we got in line for our lunch Tomi got dad's plate for him, he can do it himself but of course if she asked he'll let her.  So he was the only one sitting at the table when we walked behind him John flicks his ear and gives him a back rub..... oh dad just ate that up.  Then someone put Aunt Eddy right across from Gilbert to eat, that must have been a quiet meal.  Mom says as the cousins are talking about "the baby" and stories they remember... "I felt sorry for John being the youngest, his brothers were grown and gone before he was old enough to remember them and then dad and I didn't feel like doing anything with him so he was all alone"....... hummmmm John says "I'm 46 years old and I've never heard you say that.  Dad and Mom talk about different places and people in Iowa and ask John if he remembers...... ummmmm no remember I wasn't born here.  I love listening to these stories and finally getting to meet the cousins in Iowa.  It's pretty sad when this was the first time I've meet many of the cousins...

When we got near our house I took a picture of John and I on my phone and sent to the kids...... "we're home, hope you didn't miss us too much"  Lynn text me back and said Ohhh Mallory has the Hemmer blood today she is grumpy....... I let her know that we had Hemmer blood for 2 days and of couse she says "BLOG about it I want to know everything".  Shan and Adam said they missed us terribly, right? 

As we were driving home I realized we forgot our pillows in the room, I just bought them last weekend and those are new cases, like expensive pillows and cases, now how am I going to sleep without matching pillows........  it's okay John wear your tie tomorrow when I get home from work and I'll forget all about it.  My husband in a tie makes me happy   :) 

True Smiles

I love to capture true smiles and then when I look back at them I can't help but smile.  You can see the fun they were having when I asked them to be serious.  All you have to do is tell someone to not smile and the smiles automatically come.... along with laughter. 

Happy Tuesday - You can't help but be happy while looking at these fun smiles.

Total Mistake

  This photo is a complete mistake, I metered too bight and the sun was shining with no cloud cover which resulted in a way too bright photo..... but I like it.  Good mistakes make me happy.

Tonight we were to start loading up for a wedding we were decorating for and I got a phone call from the brides mother to say the wedding has been canceled.  The groom's mother is in intensive care from a bug bite and could use a few prayers from anyone knowing what it's like to plan a wedding for the past year....what exciting times you should be going through...... and now they have to cancel everything in 4 days.  Tears have over-come me for the entire family and all the stress they are having to deal with right now. 

Then we went to visit John's mother who was admitted to the hospital this morning..... finding that his father was admitted in the afternoon.  The hospital doesn't have double rooms anymore so I visited with mom and he took dad's room.  Mom looked good by the time we left but dad looked weak but he's a half a day behind her.  

What's wrong you ask?  Well here is the Elly story that she told the teachers, bus driver, secratary and anyone else that would listen to her.  Grandma Great broke her leg, that's why she didn't get out of her chair this morning, then when she was on the playground Grandma Great took a ride in the helicopter because she was really sick. 

Okay now what's really wrong.... they got a viral infection from ???? and they couldn't fight it off themselves and became dehydrated.  They will probably stay a couple days but they are being very well taken care of.   Grandma Great did twist her knee so she is wearing a brace {hence the broken leg story}  Now Elly is coming here in the morning for Grandpa John to feed her breakfast and drive her to school.  We'll see what stories she tells about him!!

Rain Showers

We getting some much needed rain today, not that I like rain but it smelled so fresh and spring like today.  The rain started to green everything up and the gardens are growing.  Spring rain showers make me happy when they brighten up the landscapes.

So many babies so little dirt

My sister Gayle supplies me with annuals, she is the baby plant maker during the early months of spring.  The seeds are planted and need gentle care until they sprout out of the dirt, then she babies them until the can be put into their toddler beds.   I asked her to grow me a couple Zinna's and she plants me about 4 flats, they are already in their toddler beds.  I seen the other day in the store there were green Zinna seeds and I almost bought them for her to plant..... she already has them planted. 

I'm not sure what is next after the toddler bed but there is something before they can be moved to the greenhouse and then into the selling house.   If your looking for big healthy plants this spring take a drive to Gayle's and check out her children, they are grown with so much love.

Oh I can't wait, seeing these little toddlers and some of the infants makes me happy - HAPPY TUESDAY

Growing Season

It's the growing season, it won't be too long and I'll have flowers blooming.  Everynight I walk around the gardens and see what's up and what's grown since the day before.  Spring makes me happy when the gardens start to change.

Shower games

We had a baby shower for my neice this last weekend and I love, kinda like, like, somewhat tolerate, okay I hate shower games.  I'm not good at them so I don't even try, but I love to watch others play them and this one was perfect.  Of course no one ever taste the stuff in the diaper, they say you can smell it and taste it but who ever does, it looks totally gross so why would you ever taste it.... to really, really know what it is, that's why.  Leave it up to Gayle to taste everyone of them and still get them wrong.

My family being silly makes me happy

Helping a friend

I helped my good friend paint her kitchen tonight, drink a little wine, and offer Mother of the Bride advice.  Such exciting times and I get to share them with her!!  {Happy Tuesday}

 

We painted her kitchen green..... and no I didn't force her to paint it green. 

Longer Daylight Hours

I'm really noticing the longer daylight hours we have, and in a few weeks we change the clocks for even get longer daylight hours after work. I'll have to fight through the dark mornings again, and let me tell you I have to fight my body from lying in bed when it's dark outside.

Longer daylight hours makes for Happy Tuesday.

Hidden Messages

This project is getting the best of me, our house, our garage, my aching arms and hands, my stress level..... I've not cooked or eaten anything decent in the last 2 weeks. My lunch consist of Oreo Cookies and a glass of milk and then supper is a couple handfuls of Sun chips. By the way don't give Oreo cookies that are assembled backwards to a quality girl, where is their quality control department. I'm on my 2nd package and it was the same in both of them, I'm going to file a complaint and expect a 5Y with added control plan checks and an updated FMEA of how this isn't going to happen again..... okay most of you have no idea what I just said.... for those of you that do I'm sure you agree. I can't eat them like that so I take them apart and put them together correctly before dunking in my glass of milk.

okay where was I?

This project has created mountains of sawdust in John's garage and he reminds me daily of how messy it is in there so I left him a message.

Happy Tuesday - Finding ways to communicate without words.

I'm okay

I've gotten a few e-mails and phone calls asking if I was okay. Yeah I'm fine why? Just checking since your blog post haven't been the same as usual. Well I'm here to tell you I am just fine, I am super, super busy with work, photos, class and a project that is coming up fast. But thank you for asking since I have spent the last 2 nights coughing and not getting much sleep. It's been awhile since I have had a cold and I don't remember ever having a cough that is uncontrollable. I go to bed and I cough, and cough and cough.... then I roll over.... cough and cough and cough. I'm keeping John awake so I must stop coughing..... so I hold my urge to cough in and think..... don't cough, don't cough, don't cough and then I can't hold it in anymore and I cough and cough and cough. Now it's past midnight and I still have not gotten to sleep and I've coughed a million times.... I hold it in again and shut my eyes really tight and think.... you don't have to cough it's all in your head and then I feel a cough coming and I think it's going to be a really deep cough that is going to loosen up that tickle and I won't cough anymore and then I can finally get to sleep.... so I cough a big ole' deep cough and I cough and cough and cough.... this lasts all night long, I think a lot when I'm not sleeping...... I'm also thinking that if I'm up coughing all night long I could be working on my project and have so much more done..... now it's 2am and I finally get up to get a drink of water that will help, right? Nope but eventually I did fall asleep and stop coughing but it just in time for John to get up for work and I'm sleeping really hard. Now it's the 2nd night and I'm exhausted so I think this will be a better night and I promise John that if I cough I will sleep on the couch..... yeah well I had the same issues as the night before and I don't feel like leaving my nice warm comfy bed for the couch so I make him suffer with me.... and he does...... but this time at 2am he rubs my neck until I stop coughing and fall asleep.

So at lunch today I came home for a quick nap.

Are you kidding me, I don't nap...... thank you all for your concern but I am just fine. I'm busy and have so much going on right now that a photo with little words is all I can get some days. Soon I'll be able to show you what has been keeping me busy all night long, right now it's TOP SECRET.

Here I am and you can tell I am HAPPY...... coughing but happy. Busy makes me happy.

I know the new way to cough is in your elbow or arm not your hand.... I do cough that way but this way was so much more photogenic. Now for all of you that wanted stories with my photos are you thinking you shouldn't have asked.... :)

Happy Tuesday

It makes such a difference to have sunshine.... sun makes me happy.

Yes those houses are suppose to be blurry, that's called art and it's my style.

"Know what goes into making a good photograph
and then fill in the rest with you" - author unknown

Happy Taco Tuesday

Tonight was a throw together supper and if you don't make these you are missing out on easy peasy suppers that are so darn good. It's a frozen burrito warmed up on the microwave and then lettuce, cheese, tomato, green pepper, onions, salsa and sour cream....... yum-o I walked in the door and within 15 minutes were were eating and it's so good, that makes me Happy.