Happy 45th Anniversary!

We celebrated my in-law's 45th wedding anniversary on Sunday. Wow, 45 years is amazing. Eric and I will be celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary this year, so to think of 45 is just so abstract!! I hope we can celebrate it though one day, surrounded by our kids and grand-kids like we did this weekend... it would be so special!

45 years later!

Holly, helping me out. I was trying to get
good back lighting and sun flare... like the pros!

My two cuties!

Looking for fish!

Sadie and Holly

Raw Addiction

I think I'm addicted to photographing in RAW. I didn't exactly switch right away when I got my camera. I had to upgrade Photoshop because the version I had didn't recognize my version of RAW and when I finally did upgrade, I still shot .JPG and RAW at the same time, so I would have both versions of the same photo. I thought about why I would bother doing that, and couldn't figure out why anymore so I switched to RAW. I then shot exclusively in RAW for a while, but then I started to think about the huge amount of memory it consumes, so I decided that I would strickly shoot RAW for any photo shoots I do, but keep it to .jpg for my own family spontaneous shoots I do, and if the lighting conditions were tricky I would switch. Today, was such a day where all the photos I took were the usualy weekend fun, but I felt the whole time like I really should be switching to RAW. The conditions weren't terribly difficult, full sun, but nice shade to work with. But I still felt this nagging feeling like I should switch to RAW. So at the end the day when the sun was setting I switched, I just couldn't help it! So there we go another GIG of memory gone! But now I have some nice beautiful RAW to play with... ahhh I feel better already!! (Photos to follow... got to go to bed!!)

Sneak Peak...

I've been working on this for a few days now... still far from finished, but going along really well. I'll need a few proof readers when done!!

Circles!!

I did the challenge for this week - yippee!!! Here it is:

Happy Canada Day!

Today is Canada's 142nd birthday, and we have a day off to celebrate. Normally if we were teens we'd dawn our Canada T-Shirts, get drunk and party in the Market... but that is so 1996. Now we are responsible parents, who happen to be pregnant so now I'm too big to fit into my Canada T-Shirt, and I'll be drinking juice all day. It's the kids turn to party! We'll be heading to our friend's place this afternoon, and we're just hoping that the weather clears up as it's cloudy and rainy today. Seeing as it's 5:30 am right now (thanks to Gillian) I guess we still have hope that it will clear up by evening, but I doubt it, it's looking like the clouds are here to stay.

Ages ago, Beth and I were discussing how our digital scrapbooking has evolved over the 2 years that we've been doing it. After a number of tutorials and courses, mine has definitely gotten better. I'd say better supplies to more realistic drop shadows were the major improvements. I also suggested we post our very first digital pages and while Beth was a good girl and did it. I never did (or if I did, I don't recall doing it!). So here is the very first page I ever did... Yikes!

I say "yikes" for various reasons. 1. the bad attempt at creating "torn" paper 2. the terrible font used 3. no shadows to be seen, and 4. that frame - what was I thinking... But I still cherish the page, it's a photo of Abby and I walking down by the river in Wakefield in May 2007, I was 8 months pregnant with Gillian, kind of where I am today in this pregnancy.

To see all of my pages, just click on the link to the right... the whole history of my scrapbooking is there!

This week's Challenge #11 (?) is to do a page using circles. You can use circles for the photos or circles for embellishments. Have fun!

The heat and sharing a room

We don't have air conditioning which is really ok 350 days a year, but for those 15 or so really really hot days, like today, it's unbearable! There is no wind, it's 29 degrees INSIDE the house, and we have 10 fans blowing like crazy all at the same time. I don't like it. I know it's only about 15 days, ok maybe 20 in a bad summer. But man it's tough. Then add on being pregnant! We have been talking about getting a Geothermal heating and cooling system, because we have a 180ft well sitting there doing nothing, and even though it would cost a minor fortune, it would have MANY advantages. For one it would include a cooling system, so no more dying in the hot hot summer; and then in the winter, no more heating with oil - which costs an arm and a leg now, so the cost of heating with oil would be transfered to paying for the Geothermal system, and pay itself off in about 6 years at the rate we are paying now for oil; It's environmentally friendly; and would increase the value of our home for resale. So we called the supplier and they will come tomorrow and give us a final quote on the thing, and I think we are going to do it. Not that I want more debt, but this one is worth it in the long run!

So while we all swelter in the heat, we also choose this week to be the week the girls start sharing a room. Not exactly the best time to choose to transition them, but it had to be done. Last night was the first night and let me tell you it did not go so well. We need to refine our system!! putting them both in there awake was a nightmare, because they just giggled, then eventually started running around, then started slamming the door.... etc. Then they cried because we closed the baby gate and started fighting... etc. Yikes. So we pulled Abby out, calmed Gillian down and got her settled, then finally put Abby to bed at 9:45! Needless to say, they were awfully tired and cranky this morning! Gillian was also up at 5:15, as she woke up in a different place and had to get up. Tonight we just put Gillian to bed first, and kept Abby up until 8:00 pm, and that seemed to work out well. Abby is still finding ways to put off sleep by coming out of the room, saying she can't sleep, has a belly ache and so on, basically stalling to no end! But I guess it's normal and as she gets older we can't expect her to go to bed at 7:00 like before... bummer!!

And before I part, here are some photos from today:




I hope for rain and wind tonight... I need to cool off!

The missing photos from last night...

I wanted to post a photo last night, but was ready for bed before I had time to process it.These were taken on Saturday. I had left my setup there to specifically take photos of the girls. Gillian wouldn't sit for me, but Abby did:



My watermark is on there, because it's for my gallery and my other blog. Do you like them??