Sometimes they do love each other

Samuel and Katie have a love-hate relationship. It's a true sibling relationship these days, and a healthy one. You know, the kind where Samuel is with me downstairs, Katie cries out and comes downstairs because she "fell" or something. She comes up to me and says, "Sha-mule make me fall." You know...THAT kind of relationship?! LOL

The other night, when it was time for bedtime activities and she didn't want to sit with me. She wanted to sit with Sha-mule in his chair, and share his blanket. She happily sat there with him...and rocked. Sha-mule didn't want to be rocking. Katie probably knew this, she wanted to rock. But they did behave together.

Except I told Samuel to come sit next to me when it was obvious he did NOT want to rock anymore and Katie refused to stop, and Katie screamed out, "NO!!! My Mama." Then she climbed down, ran over to me and wanted in my lap. Once in my lap she started pushing at Samuel to get away, then started maneuvering to where she was going to sit between us. I stopped her and told her that BOTH of them were welcome to sit with me, that I loved them both equally. She MUST share with Samuel just like he MUST share with her.

I got the evil eye. But she complied.

Baby steps...it's all baby steps.

It's finally happened...

It took her about 13 months, but she has finally done something that I've been waiting on. Waiting for months and months and months for her to do. Why? Because I knew that until she did this one thing, I would wonder if she was anxiously attached. I would wonder how much she still carried with her from her time in China. I would wonder how much the first 16 months of minimal stimulating toys affected her.

Did I mention that she's just about 2.5 years old? I've been waiting on this for months.

MONTHS.









Do you see what I see? If you've adopted internationally, I'm sure you do. If you have not, I'm sure you only see the messy messy room. She is playing with toys. She is playing with toys ALONE in her room.

Do you see - the doctor's kit next to the open doors of the doll crib? She was doctoring the babies...and changing their clothes and diapers (hint to those out there, buy stock in baby doll diapers at the rate she's going through them). The Little People town was played with. The kitchen food was spread all around the room. The First dollhouse was pulled out of the closet and put in the middle of the room (she evidently could not find the pieces to it, so it was abandoned there). The tea cart? Oh she wheels that around the upstairs for multiple tea parties with babies that are sporadically placed around the house.

Imaginative play. Play with toys appropriately. INDEPENDENT play.

The evidence of this brought tears to my eyes...the first 5 times. I'm quickly developing the reaction most parents have when greeted with a bedroom that looks like this after just 15 minutes from when it was spotlessly clean. ;)

A momentuous event has occurred!

*point and shoot again - ignore the mess on the table behind them*

This is Samuel's NEW bicycle! It's 16 inches, he's 6 years old. Those who know our family will know when I say this was his reward. He has FINALLY done it!!!!!! *big grin*

For the others out there wanting to know, it's a Spiderman bicycle. In addition to the Spiderman bicycle we had to get a new helmet and pads as well (Spiderman of course). I asked why his Buzz Lightyear helmet needed to be replaced (wondering if I had missed a crash or something). Evidently, at 6 years old Buzz Lightyear is no longer "cool" with the other kids in the neighborhood. Which, BTW, there are 3 other 5-6 year olds on our street.

Random cute pics

Taken with the point and shoot camera - visiting a friend for New Year's Eve party. :)

Notice the "bling" she's sporting? Yes, she loves that jewelry.


One of her babies came with us. She doesn't seem to have a favorite, but she really plays with her 4-5 smallest ones the most. In fact, she's sleeping with the one she got from my Great Aunt for Christmas tonight.


"MY pwree sun Mama. No touch it."


She has fully mastered the art of drinking out of a pouch or box. Very rarely do we have "squirts" happen these days. Makes life a little easier when we're running out the door and she calls out "Wan dwink! Wan dwink!"

for those wondering...that's a 2t she's wearing there!!! Sure the pants are safety pinned at the waist to stay up, but she's GROWING! I think we might even be around 23-24 pounds now.

"Uh-oh! Kay-dee in twa-bull"

I was cleaning the kitchen the other day and when I completed that chore, I went upstairs to be greeted by 5 different walls that looked similar to this:


*taken with the Canon SD600 point and shoot*

I yelled "Katie! What did you do?!" Yes, I knew full well what she did. I wanted to see if Katie knew.

She responded, "Uh-oh! Kay-dee in twa-bull" and she came running.

I pointed to the wall and asked, "what did you do?"

She responded, "Make pweety Mama."

Xin Nian Kuai Le， 新年快乐

In preparation for this holiday, I endeavored to embrace as many of the traditions as possible. I had great expectations.

Had being the operative word there.

I meant to get everyone's hair trimmed up and looking good so that we could enter this New Year with LOTS of luck. I didn't get a hair trimmed in the house. Dh...well, he definitely needs it too. I figure we'll make it through the 15 days of celebration though before we get their hair cut. Hopefully.

I meant to clean the house top to bottom and have it all sparkly and shiny. Dh ended up working 20 hours of overtime in the past 3 days. Do you realize what that does to a Mom with 3 kids at home when she is trying her best to clean the house top to bottom and sweep out all the bad luck?

Yeah. My eye started twitching about Saturday afternoon.

I meant to have everyone with their new shoes and new outfits to wear. Despite the overtime, I just could not see spending money on new clothes to wear right now when everyone has PLENTY of clothes (as evidenced by the piles of laundry I see each week without anyone screaming that they are out of clothes). New shoes? 3 of us have them. *shrug* Guess that will do.

I meant to decorate with all sorts of pretty lanterns, cut-outs, and red/gold door hangings. I'll make do with things the kids color tomorrow.

I meant to buy red envelopes. I printed some out from online...next year? Hopefully I'll remember next year in enough time to order them.

I did manage to purchase a Chinese meal for us to eat tomorrow night. It's a frozen family meal, but I'm counting it! :) One day perhaps I'll attempt to cook some of the delicious recipes I've read about online.

Oh...and Dh? He's going to work more overtime this week, this coming weekend, and next week. Fun times indeed.

Photography - Part 3 - Shutter Speeds

It's time for another "lesson" and this time, it's about shutter speeds. I will admit, I rarely am shooting on TV or SS priority modes. For me, I just don't have sessions that are geared for that as much. But, I can tell you where it's useful.

Sports. Taking those action photos of your kiddos out on the sports fields, in bright sunlight. ;)

I think the MOST important thing to know about Shutter Speeds involves camera shake in your photos. When your shutter speeds are too low, too slow, camera shake occurs. A good rule of thumb is to never use a shutter speed that is slower than the length of your lens. For example, if you have the 50mm lens, then you shutter speed should be above 1/50 of a second. In my case (I have a terrible case of the shakes) I need to keep my shutter speeds over "double the length of the lens" for the most part. With a telephoto lens of 70-200mm, you need to have your shutter speeds above 1/200 of a second.

However, if you can steady your camera (like on a tri-pod) you can create some FUN photos using really long shutter speeds (like 15 or 30 seconds).

(this was taken at our campsite last July, about 9pm or so, the purple/blue light and orange light in the center were created with glowing "necklace" things from 4th of July. The glowing light to the left, is the streetlight at the bathhouse. Look carefully and you can see the kids legs where the firelight from our campfire reflected off of them.) Canon5d camera, 24-105mm lens with focal length at 24mm, f/4.0, ISO 800, ss of 30 seconds


As you saw from earlier posts, shutter speeds double or halve according to changes in Aperture or ISO. All three are inter-related, and a change to one means a change to another. If you take a photo and think it's "slightly underexposed" you can move your shutter speed to a slightly slower one (next one down) and try it again.

But, I know many of you are thinking, when would or should I use the Shutter Speed priority mode? Well, think about taking photos out on the baseball field. It's a partly cloudy day with a brisk wind (bad for the lens with blowing dirt but we'll ignore that part of it for now). The sun is play "peek-a-boo" with the clouds, and if you are in AV mode and have your aperture set to 3.2 (fairly wide, but a little depth of field when shooting across the field). The SS will change according to lighting it sees each time. Well, you have ISO set to 100, with an aperture of 3.2 the shutter speed when it is sunny gives you 1/1000. Really fast, you breathe a sigh of relief...life is good. :)

Until the sun goes behind a cloud, and the shutter speed dropped to 1/250! Which, truthfully should be fairly good, but remember I shake a LOT! I needed it above 1/400. The image was of your son catching the baseball for an out!!! It's blurry due to slight camera shake, it's actually good enough for using in scrapbook, but it's not going to be 16x20 size!

*that's my criteria, a print MUST be able to go to 16x20 every time*

Okay, what should I have done? Or what did I do AFTER that shot?

I moved ISO to 200, set the SS priority to 1/500 (double what I needed) and the camera figures out the best aperture, which in this case would be 5.6. This aperture, across the baseball field, would still give us a good blurred background, but it also gives us room for that shot when the cloud obstructs the sun.


Canon 30d 70-200MM lens, 160 focal length, aperture 4.0, ss 1/1250sec (aperture priority actually...oops, but notice I have PLENTY of maneuver room in the shutter speed department) ISO200. Now, I did have exposure compensation at +0.33 meaning I made it overexpose by 1/3 of a stop (my 30d chronically underexposes). Notice here, I have aperture of 4.0 and all of JM is basically in focus (open it up in a new window to see larger), the fence and crowds in the stand are blurred with a nice bokeh. Crop leaves a lot to be desired doesn't it? Well, this is a 4x6 ratio, and a 16x20 would be a 4x5 ratio. I was looking for a good shot for a 16x20, as such I have to leave roughly 1 inch of room around the outside...this one worked out to be all at the top. JM moved within the area I had pre-framed.


So, in recap, you use aperture priority mode when you are most interested in controlling the aperture. You use the Shutter speed priority mode when you are most interested in controlling the shutter speeds so that they don't go slower than a specific amount.

Next post...next post is the illustration of how these 3 factors work together.

Assignment: Put the camera in shutter speed priority mode, set the shutter speed to be double your lens length. Go outside and play with different "lighting" areas - full sun, under your front porch (shade), beside a house on the north side (open shade), dappled lighting (my most hated lighting situation), and so forth. Watch what the apertures do. For best results of CLEAR photos, set the ISO for the shade on the front porch (I would suggest starting it off around 400).

Remember, ISO 1600 is NICE to get non-flash photos indoors. However, you trade it off in noise. If you underexpose the photo on any ISO level, you get noise in the photo as well.

"Clap hands Momma"

Tuesday was an incredibly busy day for me. Incredibly. We had speech therapy at 10am, dentist appointments at 12 and 12:30 and karate at 1:40. I left the house at 9:20 for the 10 am speech therapy appointment (we now live that far away). Then, we left there at 10:34 (I looked), and I turned on the radio to see if "Inauguration coverage" was on. It was. We started listening to it as I drove toward home. At 11:00, or near there, I was almost home and they were minutes from the swearing in of Obama. Do I stop at home? Or do I keep driving? 1 hour until we had to be at the dentist, which meant I had to leave the house in 15 minutes anyway. Hmmm. "Lunch OUT!" was my choice, we continued to listen to the inaugeration.

Every time someone would be announced and people would clap, Katie would insist, "clap hands Mommy." EVERY TIME. She even did so if it felt to her to be a place one should clap. She clapped. I should clap.

Samuel played a video game.

JM listened with me. He told me, "Why do we have to listen to this? It's just another man becoming president." It hit me then, to him, Obama becoming president was NOT a big deal. He didn't see him as African-American, biracial, or anything. To JM, Obama was just another man. I tried to explain it, but after I stumbled around a little bit I realized, I had just introduced my son to seeing the color of someone's skin. We talked a little bit more about what our history holds. JM thought it was stupid how people were treated 60 years ago. While we've studied the civil rights movement, and he knows who Rosa Parks is, I realized that he didn't UNDERSTAND it because he didn't see the skin color as being a big deal. I agreed with him that it was stupid how people were treated, and we needed to remember that so it NEVER EVER happens again.

That's when I teared up. Our country has really come a very long way!

Photography - Encouragement

I've heard from many both on the blog and through email that learning these new things on the camera is a bit overwhelming. Yes it can be. Yes it was for me too. I want to encourage you though and know that the more you practice, the more you MAKE yourself use these settings, the more you will learn. The faster you will be able to adjust things. The more you will "guess" the right settings right off the bat.

When I was first starting in manual modes and not comfortable with them, I would look at a situation to begin with and think "What ISO do I think this needs?" I would set that and take some test photos. Did I guess right? If not, why? What tricked my eye into thinking this placed needed that ISO.

Aperture, on the other hand, came about more from me wanting that blurry background. So, I always went for really wide open. It took a few months for me to realize that not everything I shot had to be fully wide open. Play with it. Have fun with it.

I've been trying to visit everyone's blogs who have posted to these posts, and those who are following. I have seen some great photos too!

I'm knee deep in my photography book that I'm studying, and just finished the "developing you own negatives and prints" chapters. I've got a post going on Shutter Speeds, but after these past two lessons on ISO and Aperture, I'm sure you are having an idea of what it is like. I will be talking about the Shutter Speed Priority mode though and WHY it's sometimes a good idea to use it.

I'm also working on "tips for taking portraits" of your own kids. Places I look for in houses, areas, etc. I'm working on a "composition" post, where I'll talk about what makes a great composition. I'm working on a post about "photo-journalism" and "lifestyle" photography. I could inundate you with TONS of posts, but I'm afraid I'll overwhelm you all with too much information.

So, my encouragement to you all - KEEP SHOOTING! Try to get to the point where if you make a mistake in taking a photo you can say "I know WHY that happened and this is what I need to do to correct it." If you have ANY questions, please feel free to email me.

Meme...againagain

Here's the rules as dear Kia laid out...if you read this, considered yourself TAGGED! You must fill this out or suffer the dire consequences. I'm predicting if you don't do this Meme, then you'll lose all those un-backed up photos you have on your computer. ;)

Five Names You Go By:
1. Carla
2. Ma-ah-m (yes, 3 syllables)
3. Samuel's Mom
4. JM's Mom
5. Katie's Mommy

Three Things You’re Wearing Right Now:
1. Long sleeve shirt
2. Jeans
3. socks


Two Things You Want Very Badly At The Moment:
1. for the kids to be in bed
2. a Wallaby Darned

Three People Who Will Probably Fill This Out:
1. Tongumomma because she so totally OWES me a Meme.
2. Cheri because I can guilt her into it over the phone.
3. Hot Tub Lizzie because I think her answers would be interesting...

Two Things You Ate Today:
1. French fries
2. Quesadilla

Two People You Last Talked To On The Phone:
1. Dh
2. Mom

(only because it was a Saturday or it would read, Cheri and Gina most likely)

Two Things You Are Going To Do Tomorrow:
1. Go to church
2. do some work, like finish up the wedding book

Two Longest Car Rides:
1. Nashville, TN to Tucson, AZ
2. Bank Hotel, Kunming China to Civil Affairs Office, Kunming China *well it felt like it*

Two of Your Favourite Beverages:
1. Dr. Pepper
2. Sha-weeeeet Tea (that's what Katie calls it)

Two Phrases You Said Today To Your Kid That You Wish You Could Take Back
1. Please just be QUIET for a few minutes. PLEEEEEASE.
2. Would you just hurry up and get out of the van?! *hey it's FREEZING here and I was waiting on them to get out of the van so we could go inside the warm store*

Remember, if you read this, you must do the Meme...or risk losing those photos! ;)

Photography lesson - backing up photos

This week I'm reshooting class photos for the kids school. Why? Because I didn't properly back up my photos. Well, honestly, I had 3 back ups which should have been plenty. What happened is I took a group to work on, then overwrote the class photos. Then I propagated the "erased" ones to the backups.

So, how is the best way to back up data, or rather those precious precious photos?

First off, nothing is permanent. NOTHING will last forever. One thing to know is that CDs or DVDs that are "normal" will only last a few years. If you write on them with sharpie, it will last much less than that (about half that time). If you put the stickers on it? It will deteriorate faster as well. If you purchase the gold something or others, I think those will last about 10 years.

What about hard drives? External drives you store in a lock box? well, if you don't spin them up at least once every 6 months, they will possibly "freeze" up.

What about flash drives? You know, I just don't know.

The "best" that I've heard of is online data storage, but it's very expensive, especially if you have a ton of photos.

What do I have set up?

Personal photos from years ago are on CD/DVD (must check the oldest). Yes, I wrote on them with sharpie and used stickers. One day I'll sit down and make sure the images are all still there.

Business photos and personal from the last year are stored on one drive, then backed up to 2 separate drives. I have over 1 terabyte of hard drive storage space. It's not enough. Organization is the key. For personal this is what I have:

Year
--Month
----Day or Event
------RAW
------PSD
------ORDER
------WEB

OR

Year
--ORDER
--Month
---Day or Event
-----RAW
-----PSD
-----WEB

Clients are this way

PHOTOGRAPHY
--Business Files
--Photos
----Clients
------Name
--------RAW
--------PSD
--------PROOF
--------ORDER
--------WEB
--------FILES (this is for their information files when I get them digitized)

I highly recommend having a folder just for the raw files, then when you edit save the psd files off to another folder. It just makes it easier to find them.

Part 2 - Aperture

What exactly is the Aperture of the camera?

It's the opening in the lens that allows light to come through. It can be REALLY wide or really small. Both work, but give different resulting images. If you see f/2.8, then the aperture setting was 2.8.

Here's the KEY to this setting:

The smaller the number, the larger the opening.

The larger the number, the smaller the opening.

Notice...it's OPPOSITES! :)

So, when a lens says f/1.8 on it, that means the largest aperture setting it has is 1.8. If it says f/4.0-5.6 then the largest aperture setting is 4.0-5.6 (it's variable and that's for another day). Some will have an "ending" aperture of f/16 or f/22.

What is the difference? Why do we care?

The larger opening gives a shallower depth of field. It is what creates that lovely blurred background that so many people love.

(f/1.8 ss 1/2500 ISO 200 85mm lens Canon 5D)

The smaller opening, the f/16, means that the depth of field is much larger and more of the image will be in focus.

Hmmm, why is this important to you?

Well, when I'm photographing Katie, I like to shoot around f/2.8 so that I can get her singled out in an image. She can be the focal point of the image. I can draw your eyes to her LOVELY eyes. :)

(f/4.0 SS1/200 ISO400 Canon 5D 24-105mm lens at 99mm)

However, if I'm shooting all 3 kids, then most likely they are NOT in the same focal plane (meaning side by side) and if I'm at a wide open aperture with a shallow depth of field and I focus on Katie who is sitting in front of JM...well, JM is going to be blurry! That's not good. If I make the aperture smaller, then I can get all 3 kids in focus (I usually start around f/4.0 or f/5.6 depending on how far away I am).


(f/7.1 SS 1/320 ISO 640 Canon5D 24-105mm at 73mm)

AND


(f/5.0 SS 1/250 ISO200 Canon5D 24-105mm at 105mm)
Notice on this one above, JM and Samuel are almost side by side, and I probably could have gone "wider open" than I did.

So, our lesson today, is to set your camera to a specific ISO (I'm going to suggest 1600 if you are indoors). ;) I would suggest finding a group of object, like 5 glasses sitting on a table at different lengths from you (front to back), or 5 toys, or flowers.

Then, move the Aperture to the widest opening (remember the smallest number) that you can (for some this is f/1.8 and other it might be f/4.0). If you have the ability to change the focal length (turn your lens to get closer or farther away), move it so that you are in as close as you can. Then back your body up to be able to see all of the items in one photo. Focus on the object closest to you, take the photo (write down the SS please). Do you NOTICE that blurred background?

Now, move the Aperture ONE up from where you were. Take the photo of the SAME object, and write down the SS. Repeat again and again, writing down the SS.

Do you see what the shutter speeds are doing every time you increase your aperture? Each time you make the aperture opening smaller, the Shutter speed HAS to decrease to compensate and make a properly exposed image.

I'm guessing that some of you are following me, some are not. It takes a few times doing this exercise and reading about aperture for things to sink in about the relationships. Don't worry, I'm going to go over this with a visual (or mental visual) soon.

What I want for you to have gotten out of this post, is that when you hold the ISO the same and change the Aperture...the Shutter Speeds change as well.

I also hope that at this point you are comfortable with changing the ISO and the Aperture settings on your camera.

PLEASE post your images to your own blog and let me know! I would love to see what you've done and how this is helping you. If you have questions, please let me know as well. If you post a comment here directing me to your blog with the images, I will be more than happy to comment on your blog with whatever help I can give you.


*note: to change aperture there should be a dial near the shutter button or near your thumb that has ridges. In AV mode you should be able to turn this to change the aperture. Check with the manual if this does not work. You should see numbers like 1.8, 2.0, 2.8, 3.2, 4.0, 5.6, 7.1, 8.0 etc.

What we will find online...

Some times I let the kids hunt for fun things online (with me there of course), and I remembered (with help from a friend) the Mentos experiment. Remember the EepyBird video online? No?

Well, I remembered it after watching a friend show photos from coke and mentos (although we've always used diet coke with mentos in the past). I went hunting for her the links.

http://eepybird.com/videos.html

They have a website now! Oh boy were my boys thrilled. It has re-newed an interest in blowing things up. Okay, so that interest is almost always there, but still.

Post-Holiday slump

I think I'm in that dreaded Post-Holiday slump. Or it's that life finally slowed down some and my mind and body are saying "HEY let's just sit around and do nothing all day." Or rather, "let's fall asleep just about every chance you can get to sit down."

Except at Mid-night when the insomnia kicks in.

Yeah. Which is sort of helping as I'm buried neck deep in business related stuff, homeschooling related stuff, cleaning related stuff, unpacking (yes still) the various things in the house, and general life. I'm so buried that I'm just not wanting to take photos of the kids. I even failed at the 52 week challenge. 2nd week and I failed at it.

Or, you know, this whole slump could be caused by drastically cutting back on the whole caffeine thing.

Starting at the beginning or Part 1 - ISO

I shoot Canon, so most of the controls might be in Canon-speak. ;) I'm also still learning, but I'm about to take that darn test that says I know what I'm talking about. So, I hope this will help you as it's helping ME clarify everything so I can score really well on that test.

A or AV is aperture priority
S or TV is shutter priority
M is Manual
P is photo priority (basically auto without the camera choosing ISO or flash)

Before we go too far, I want to make sure EVERYONE understands the relationship between aperture, shutter speeds, and ISO. They all 3 affect the light that is coming into the camera and being captured on the film/digital sensor, and understanding how they work is crucial to properly exposing your images manually. Before I get into why I choose which one, what I'm thinking when taking a photo, etc. I want to go over these basics.

We all know that ISO 100 needs a brighter light than ISO 1600. ISO numbers show a sensitivity to light, and the lower the number the finer the grain in the film. For digital cameras, we see "ISO equivalents" and it measures how sensitive the sensor is to light, and it works the same way as the film - it's a measurement of the "grain" which produces noise in the final image. While it's nice to be able to shoot indoors without a flash and keep good shutter sppeds with ISO 1600, it comes at a cost. ISO 1600 has a LOT of noise in it, lets not even discuss what ISO 3200 has in terms of noise.

I'll go back and tell a quick story from this past May. Airing my dirty laundry so to speak, and why I'm still "growing" as a photographer. I was shooting a wedding with a friend, and we were down in a "hollow" in Middle Tennessee in the deep dark of the woods. Bright sunny day, but down in the "hollow" I needed 1600 ISO to get my shutter speeds fast enough for the aperture of 4.0-8.0 that I was varying between. As expected those photos are really nice, but have a lot noise. Well, we get to the top of the hill, in a more open area. I start to shoot the little kids, and I had put the camera in AV mode (do this sometimes in a fast moving situation with kids). I was not paying attention to my in camera meter OR shutter speeds. I was tired (it was about 4 hours into the wedding shooting). I finally chimped (which is looked at the back) and saw WAY OVERBLOWN! I could not figure it out! My shutter speeds were maxed out. I looked at the camera for a good minute or so, then DUH!!! I still had ISO 1600 set! I moved the ISO down to 200 and immediately my images were better exposed.

Luckily, my friend was also capturing images at this point. We did not have to rely solely on MY images alone. This is why I do not like shooting a wedding alone.

Okay, so that little story should tell you why you need to know these relationships, because at some point you will see an image on your camera during an important moment and need to know what to do to make it come out properly.

GO FIND YOUR CAMERA MANUAL!!!! :) I'll wait for you. If you can't find it, look it up online. Put this somewhere that you can reference in case I ask you to adjust something, and you don't know where it is!

Got it? Good...

Move the dial to what on Canon cameras is A or AV mode, and on Nikon it's A mode. Those of you with other brands, if you have trouble please let me know. AV or A mode allows you to set the aperture setting and choose your ISO, and the camera will figure out the best shutter speed for you based on it's "metering" and such.

Figure out how to change the ISO manually. (Look at the manual, if you have trouble contact me and I'll help you figure it out) Usually there is a menu setting to change it, or a button that says "ISO" on it that you have to push (and sometimes in combination with another button/dial to change it).

The in camera meter is located in 2 places - when you look through the Viewfinder it's the bar that has -2...-1...0...1...2 in some fashion. In Canon it's across the bottom, and I think in Nikon it's along the right side. The 2nd place is on the top (well, okay, from looking at online views of Rebel XS and the Nikon D60...it's not viewable there...if it has live viewing on the back, it might show it there). Really, you only really care about it through the viewfinder.

Also in the viewfinder (and sometimes on the top or on the back) you will see the corresponding numbers to SS and Aperture.

So, in A or AV mode, I want you to set the Aperture to the smallest number you can (for some this will be f/1.8 for other it might be f/3.5 or f/4.0 or f/5.6).

Now, set your camera to ISO 100 and focus on something in the room. Find that meter and settings...you don't have to take a photo, but you have to focus and get the exposure readings. Write down them down with a notation that it was for ISO 100.

If you are in a dimly lit room, I would expect the photo to be a little blurry due to camera shake of a very slow shutter speed! Is that what happened to your photo? It would for me at ISO 100 (see post below this one).

Now, change the ISO to 200 - retake the photo and write down the SS it gave you. Repeat for ISO 400, ISO 800, and ISO 1600. What did you see happen?

The Shutter Speeds should have increased. Not only that, but they should have at least doubled. Did they "double" or close to it?

Thus, a LOW ISO number means "slower" shutter speeds than a HIGH ISO number would give you in the same light. Lower number film speeds (or ISO) are considered "slow films" while higher numbered ones are considered "fast" films because of this.

If you are out, say in the botanical gardens and you took a photo of you child in the bright sunlight. It would need a lower ISO number. If you then stepped into a really shady area, then you would need to bump up your ISO number to a higher one so that you can keep faster shutter speeds. If you are outside taking photos, getting nice crisp exposures, then move indoors with the same ISO and get blurred images remember to check to see if your ISO is appropriate for INDOORS. Back in my "old" days when I shot film for the yearbook, we had to finish out an entire ROLL of film before changing the ISO to one more suited for indoors (or heavy shade). Now aren't you glad you have a digital camera?

I couldn't find any good photos of this to share in this post, but rest assured I will share some soon (even if I have to take them with the purpose of showing you all the differences).

Any questions? (next up is Aperture)

Photo Friday

***This is NOT part of the series I'm working on, but for the few that actually know what I'm talking about, I added in the steps and the explanations. :)


This was taken with the 30d and 50mm lens open to 1.8 aperture. SS was 1/125. ISO 1600. I shot this in Manual mode. If you are coming from reading the ISO post above, notice the SS was 125 at ISO 1600. ISO 100 (which is where I told you to start) would have given me a SS of roughly 1/8th of a second. There is NO way I could ever hand hold that.

Here is the unedited, SOOC shot. *Oh this is hard*


WHY did I choose the settings I did?

1 - Why ISO 1600? I did not want to use flash. In fact, I rarely ever use flash indoors*. If I do use flash, I try to use it in such a way that you don't see it, which means NO shadows outlining people. I knew, given the time of day (evening around 6:30pm) and the fact that we only had the overhead lights on, I would need a fairly high ISO. *Exceptions are when I use the P&S camera

2 - Why the 50mm lens? I wanted to get close and I knew I would need to "open" up the aperture.

3 - Why f/1.8? I needed the camera as wide open as it would go (yes, I only invested in the $75 version of this lens. Why I did that is for a whole other post). I also wanted the bokeh (Japanese for blurry I believe) this lens provides at such wide open apertures. I knew, standing across the table from the kids painting that I could focus in on the hand and the body behind it would be out of focus, thus drawing attention to the hand painting.

4 - Why SS 1/125? The "duh" answer is that is the SS that gave me the proper exposure. But really, I need to elaborate on this for you. In all honesty, I could have gone with a SS of 1/60 and been fine hand holding as the lens is a 50mm. If I had done that I could have lowered the ISO to 800 and had less grain, or left it at 1600 and had an image that was over-exposed according to the meter by 1 full stop (and looking above 1 full stop would have been a wee bit too much, but not terribly too much).

Using a 50mm lens, I know that I need to keep my shutter speeds at LEAST longer than the lens length. In this case, I knew to combat my "shakiness" I needed to have a shutter speed of at least 1/50. However, for me, this night I had had too little or too much caffeine and knew I was a little shaky as I normally am. So a SS of 1/125 was close enough to double the lens length I strive for when I'm shaky, and it matched what I needed for the aperture.

Okay, had the proper exposure said I needed a SS of 1/30, I would have known I would probably see camera shake in the final image. It's just too slow to hand hold (especially for me). How could I have changed that SS? There are 2 ways. I could have "opened the aperture wider" and gone to f/1.4 and then my SS would have increased (the question is "to what?"). OR I could have bumped my ISO up to 3200 and increased the SS. There is a relationship between all 3, and you have to understand this to know how you can move the settings for proper exposure.

That's the "technical" behind the photo. Now, you notice, it's nice and pretty YELLOW tinted huh? I did not color balance this image at all prior to shooting. I shoot in RAW format, and this allows me to color correct after the fact (which is honestly a bad habit for me).

Here are my steps for Photoshop and processing my images, well the "basic" processing:

Open in Lightroom/Bridge/Camera Raw and adjust the color. I also adjust any exposure issues I see as well. This one was fairly good to start with, but I think I bumped the shadows slightly. I bumped the saturation levels a tad. Added a tiny bit of "fill light" or "brightness" as I probably should have slightly overexposed according to the in camera meter.

Then, I open in photoshop. I run an unsharp mask filter I have nicknamed "defog" and it basically takes the "fogginess" out of the original image. It slightly sharpens it.

Because I shot it at ISO 1600, I run a filter that takes out the excess noise caused by shooting at such a high ISO.

Then I run a curves action and levels action (boosting both of those). Curves boosts the highlights and colors while the levels boosts the shadows. I then adjust each of those layers to 50%.

For this image, I then cropped according to the rule of thirds - the paint tip is the "interesting" part so I put it on the bottom right 1/3. Think of your image, draw imaginary lines at the 1/3 intervals going both horizontal and vertical. Where they "intersect" are your "best points of interest" to make a photo more interesting.

We ended up with this:


Okay, open that edited version up in a new tab/window by right clicking on it and selecting "open in new". In cropping this one I actually sort of "failed" to get it into the rule of thirds. Why? If you notice, the paint tip brush is NOT in focus. The fingers holding it are in focus. More importantly the knuckles are in focus. Can you see where it falls "out of focus" at all? THAT is how shallow this depth of field is. I was standing about 3 feet away from the hand. If you are going to be standing that close to a child to shoot a photo of their face, then you have to be aware at how easily focus can fall off in the wrong spot. But in the small version, you just don't see the details enough to tell that the tip of the paint brush is so out of focus! ;)

I'll talk about Depth of Field in another post. :) It deserves it's own post.

*Yes, I know the edited version is showing a tad red....LOL yeah, a lot red. I have not gotten the CS4 set to the right colorspace, and this shows it! Off to fix that now.

Enjoying the little things

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. ~Robert Brault

How true this is.

Holding JM in the first few weeks, snuggled up under my chin and resting on my chest. That perfection of newborn.

The first kiss with your husband.

The first time your child says, "I wuff ooo Mommy."

A nightly hug from your 6 year before he can fall asleep.

A kiss in the morning before your husband leaves for work.



I could go on and on. I did a search on HAPPINESS quotes, looking for something to turn into wall words. Found this, and had a blog post. :) Neat how that works out huh?

BTW, I'm working on the Camera settings posts. I'm going to the very beginning of basic controls on the manual side of your camera. A few might be VERY bored, and a few might still not get it just reading through the post. I'm going to greatly encourage you to read those posts with a camera IN HAND. Then practice and practice and practice! :) I have the words written for the first 2, just needing to get the photos to go along with them.

Would you be interested?

As I know many of you out there in bloggy land got a new camera recently, with new lenses...and are attempting the Manual settings, would you be interested in a series of posts with photos showing the relationships between Aperture/SS/ISO in equivalent exposures? How they affect things.

A post or so on shooting wide open, on which lenses are good for what, etc.?

See, I'm studying right now for my CPP exam and I'm having to make sure I know this stuff forward and backward. REALLY FORWARD AND BACKWARD.

I can also run over some Photoshop techniques if you like as well, I do not know anything about Elements anymore, so I would need someone familiar with it and photoshop to help me out if you needed specific help with Elements. But I can explain/show why Unsharp Mask filters are good, why you should not just rely on one method for turning a photo to black and white, what a good curves and levels adjustment layers will do for you, and using MASKS.

I will need to go over all this soon for myself, and redo actions and redo workflows as I just upgraded to CS4 from CS2 and I know not all my plug-ins, actions, etc. will work.

What is the CPP exam? Click that and find out! :) It's TOUGH. Very tough. If I pass the written test, then I have to pass the image submission part.

I could not do any client photos here, but I can do the kids. :) Everyday life things, to portraits...

It's day 4 and I've already failed.

At the 365 Photo Challenge that is. I figured I would, so my back up was a 52 week challenge. 1 photo a week taken and posted. 52 times. It's my goal, and I'm posting it here, that I do this in an effort to become better at my craft. To develop more. Personally, I'm going to to try for the photojournalistic viewpoint. TRY being the operative word there.

Someone once told me that I should attempt to capture the moment in 1 photograph, and to concentrate on it by ONLY allowing yourself to take 3 images of the "event/moment" total. For an overshooter that is going to be tough. I think I went over tonight, but honestly, I did my 3 "shots" and then played with my normal shooting style to get Katie's "CHEESE" yet again. It's just too cute.

Here is Week 1 -



Only thing is I feel like it needs a title, any suggestions?

Christmas photos...finally!

Katie had a wonderful Christmas, this was her 2nd actual one home with us. However, I do not believe she remembers the last as we had been home a total of 5 days at that point. It was a blur. She was overwhelmed. This year, oh this year, she really got into it!

She is VERY proud of the tiara, jewelry, princess wand/sceptor, and baby doll that she got from my extended family. VERY PROUD. She loves baby dolls and dress up! Thanks Grandma, Great-Aunt, and Mom!!!! :) I'm just sorry I didn't get photos of all of those gifts.

I will have to post various photos of the others, but I did not take very many photos over all. It was one of those kinds of Christmases...the kind to make memories by participating instead of making memories by being behind the camera lens and viewing it all through the viewfinder.

We drove and drove and drove...

but enjoyed all the time we got to spend with family over the Holidays. Unfortunately I left my "big" camera home, and left my point and shoot camera at my parents. No photos of our whirlwind Christmas trip. 5 states in 5 days.

If I never have to pack our van again, I'll be only too happy. Unfortunately our Disney vacation is coming up, and we're driving there. *sigh*

Good times were had by all, but I think the favorites for the week include:

Dh playing with my brother on Rock Band.
My brother flying his Havoc Heli and all of our efforts at crashing it.
Playing cards with my family, and losing at Canasta.
Watching Polar Express and Santa Clause snuggled up with the kids.
That darn gingerbread house.
Watching Katie play and perform using her new toys.

and for me, sleeping in! :)

Now, we're preparing for New Year's and those all important resolutions.

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours, we want to wish you a very Merry Christmas filled with great joy, peace, and happiness. We hope you are able to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas with those you love, and we hope for those who have lost loved ones this year that you are surrounded with comfort in this time of grieving as well.



This blogger is taking a break to focus on her family, spend time making memories to treasure, and bask in the love I get from those amazing little people I call my children.

Translation fun

"Wan HI Cheri!" = Katie wants to tell Cheri HI on the phone.

"Wan ju" = Katie wants a drink, usually juice, but could be anything.

"Wan shwee tea" = Katie wants sweet tea, and you better not mess it up.

"Be-a-ma" = what she calls Grandma, or anyone she happens to really like

"dju-dju" = what she calls my MIL (and it never goes to anyone else)

"Wan mil" = she wants her milk with Carnation Instant Breakfast in it

"Go Nigh-nigh" = she wants to go to bed, but not necessarily to sleep

"I sha-ree" = Katie is sorry.

"Ka-ee" = Katie

"Go way Shamul" = Go away Samuel

"Where goin Momma?" = Where are we going Momma?

"Wan bay-bee dah" = Katie wants her baby doll, which one we don't know as they are all called baby doll.

"Dat nummy" = that's yummy

"I like dat" = Katie likes something

"No mommy. Don' like dat." = Katie does NOT want anymore of whatever food I'm trying to give her as she doesn't like it at all.

"Nuffing" = her response now when she's chewing something and we ask what she has in her mouth. "Nuffing" Yeah as it's garbled around the chewing motion in her mouth! Typically she's found an M&M, gum, cookie, or other yummy treat.

This is just a short list...but "HI CHERI!!!" was all I've heard today.

Life is crazy

Update on the leak...we know it's not the siding, we know it's not where the siding meets the brick, we know it's not the window, we know it's not the roof, we know it's not the plumbing, and we think it's drainage in the yard that will only result in a leak into the house when we get more than 5 inches of rain in 24 hours.

That doesn't happen often, but we're going to get it looked into and hopefully fixed.

The carpet people are re-installing the pad and fixing the carpet tomorrow. The super duper carpet fan is being picked up tomorrow. The couch is being swapped out tomorrow.

If I weren't busy enough already, I have to package a client's order and deliver. I have to clean the house. I have to put my bedroom back together from where it's been out of sorts due to the carpet situation.

I want to bake and am contemplating the balance of baking cookies, how many will get eaten prior to us visiting family, how long the actual "food" would last if not devoured, and how much time I will have on my hands later in the week to do this task. It's an art I truly believe.

I won't bore you with details of the rest of the week, but suffice it to say I won't be seeing my husband from Wednesday through Sunday besides 1 hour in the evenings. He'll get home around 9-10pm each night though. The boys are participating in a fine arts festival (will post their entries afterward). I'm having some friends over for "crafts and play" time. *read MOMMY TALK TIME* It's going to be a whirlwind of the rest of the week for sure! I'm hoping we can get the rest of the stuff out of the storage building this Saturday as it would be nice to not have that payment and to know it's ALL in my house!!!!! *read no more having to save space for what is left in the storage building*

January....it should be less busy...right?

Want a Christmas Card?

I must have a mailing address, and if I don't have it by Friday...then I won't get them out before Christmas! :)

I moderate comments, and I promise NOT to post addresses, or you can send them to

snapshot006 at gmail.com



If I go over what I have printed, then it will be after Christmas before you get one. Sorry. :)


OH, and just in case you were wondering...if you THINK I have your address I hope you realize that moving boxes EAT address books.


Leaving you with this vision of cuteness!

Mermaid Party

I have a friend.

Yes I do...I really do.

This friend outdoes herself in the creativity department, and she has the best taste. See, Katie gets a vast majority of her clothes from this friend who has a little girl who just turned 3 (this means Katie and she will be in the same grade).

Yes, Katie is a full year plus behind her friend L in clothing. ;)

Katie was not too sure about this whole birthday thing.


Do you SEE this cake?! Isn't my friend just over the top awesome at themed parties?!


Poor Katie...not too sure about a normal sized fork. LOL


This party for 3 year olds (plus Katie) was short, sweet, and the 4 girls played beautifully together. They had a tea party. They dressed up. They played tea party (yes again). It was just right. It still wore Katie out though!

The theme was "Mermaids" and my friend gave a mermaid "tail" costume as a favor. She ordered it on Etsy, and I will definitely have to get a good photo of it!

25 days of Christmas meme

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Depends on the object, if it's a box, I like wrapping paper. If it's odd shape, then gift bag.

2. Real tree or Artificial? We have artificial, although I love the look & smell of real tree...just not the hassle.

3. When do you put up the tree? day after Thanksgiving if not earlier! It HAS to be after Halloween though

4. Do you like eggnog? Never had any

5. Favorite gift received as a child? Cabbage Patch kid

6. Hardest person to buy for? Parents.

7. Easiest person to buy for? My kids.

8. Do you have a nativity scene? 2 I believe...no 3. One "foam and felt" hanging one, one Playmobile set, and one nice set.

9. Mail or email Christmas cards? Both.

11. Favorite Christmas Movie? How the Grinch Stole Christmas

12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? December 26

13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No.

14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Grandma's Squash Casserole

15. What decorations are on your tree? Nice one, Grandma's stars, plastic ornaments...upstairs one kids ornaments (hand made), plastic ornaments, and multicolor shorted out strings...so it's not being lit these days

16. Favorite Christmas song? This Baby

17. Travel at Christmas or stay at home? It rotates on a 3 year schedule. :)

18. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Pracer, and Vixen. Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen...and Rudolph!

19. Angel on top of tree or star? Both...one up and one down.

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? Depends on where we are!

21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? crowds

22 What theme or color are you using when you decorate? whatever strikes my fancy

23. Favorite for Christmas dinner? didn't I already answer this? squash casserole

24. What do you want for Christmas this year? nothing really.

Story of water in my carpet.

So, when you move into a brand new home (as in you picked out colors, carpet, brick color, siding color, the whole shebang and watched it be built), you also have to be prepared for "quirky" things. Someone else has not ever lived in this house, and so the kinks have to worked out by you. It's why most newly built homes have a 1 year warranty. ;) I'm pretty "go with the flow" on the house stuff.

To lead into this, I must start with..."we had rain."

That's almost like Noah telling his grandchild, "then it rained."

As in, yesterday we got an "official" 1.43 inches of rain, bringing our total for the month to 7.5 inches. To put that in perspective, I think we got 7.5 inches in 6 months last year...if that. Most of our monthly "averages" for rainfall are around 1.5 inches. Yeah. IT RAINED.

It rained Wednesday and Thursday pretty much NON-STOP, if you count the drizzly misting rain we had sporadically. Tuesday night I did not sleep in our bed, I fell asleep on the couch. I was reading an awesome fluffy romance novel and could not put it down. 3am rolls around and I finish and just go to sleep there on the couch. Not to mention, I had 3 under the bed boxes stacked by my side of the bed, the contents of another box at the foot of the bed, and not a great way to get IN bed other than this one spot that was the width of my foot.

Wednesday night I decided I really should sleep in my bed, and did so. Thursday morning I crawled out of the foot of the bed to go get Katie and bring her back to bed with me. Remember that 3am night Tuesday night? Yeah. So, Katie wakes up around 8:30 and the boys get up around 9am. Sometime in there I decide I really should get up with the kids. I sit up, and instead of crawling out the foot of the bed I place my foot in the one spot on my side of the bed that it could go. I stand up.

SQUISH! Water pools up over my toes.

Now, my first thought is "What in the heck did Katie spill?!"

Then I took another step. "SQUISH!!"

My brain started working here and I realized that this could NOT be a Katie spill. Then I realized it was coming out from under our WOOD furniture. Yeah...the pieces of wood furniture piled up with table top picture frames, books, Bibles, artwork, etc.

LOVELY. I start the phone call process of trying to deal with this, while keeping Katie out of it. I move stuff. I move furniture. I listen to it rain some more. I walk in the rain and check and can't see a puddle (freshly sodded dormant grass squares hide a lot of drainage issues). I talk to the warranty people. I meet a warranty guy to look at the problem. I check the water meter when all water is NOT running in the house (it wasn't spinning so doubtful it was a leak).

Now, to give you a heads up. We live in a two story house. Our bedroom is on the bottom floor on a slab foundation. The wet spot was ON THE FIRST FLOOR.

They had the roofers come out to check for a roof leak. Yeah...2 floors and the ONLY spot that is wet is on the floor?! Roofers confirmed that the spot in our carpet was NOT caused by a roof leak, but they did find another leak and fixed it.

Friday the warranty inspector guy came back out and took off the baseboards/toe kick of the cabinets to verify there was NOT a leak from the pipes and plumbing. There was not. The carpet people came out and started the process of removing/repairing the carpet. The carpet people were the ones to suggest that it was a drainage related issue from outside as they have seen this kind of "wet spot" before...granted not quite as big, but we did get a LOT of rain.

That's the water in my carpet story. Just another adventure of moving into a new home. :) Also the reason our master bedroom will NOT be "settled" until after Christmas now.

50 things about me!

50 random things about you! If you opened this, FILL IT OUT! Learn 50 things about your friends, and let them learn 50 things about you!

1. Do you like cheese? yes, perhaps a little too much.

2. Have you ever smoked? NO!

3. Do you own a gun? No, but we have thought about getting one.

4. Do you like listening to Christmas music? Yes...and I'm upset that I can not find my Christmas music since we moved. NOT a good time to lose it!

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? depends on the appointment, but I'm never "calm"

6. What do you think of hot dogs? eh...I can do without them....much prefer johnsonville brats

7. Favorite Christmas song? This Baby

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Dr. Pepper

9. Can you do push ups? Yes. Unless you are asking if I can do more than one...then I am not sure.

10. Who is your favorite Grey's Anatomy Character? ummm, I don't watch it. Shocking I know.

11. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? wedding ring/engagement ring

12. Favorite hobby? hobbies?? I don't have time for hobbies. But if I did....ummm.....what did I do before I got so busy? Oh yeah, I took photos as a hobby. ;)

13. Do you eat "exotic" foods? What's exotic? I like Chinese, Thai, Japanese, and...a few other more mainland things.

14. Do you have A.D.D.? I'm guessing so, not officially.

15. What one trait do you hate about yourself? Self-esteem

16. Middle Name? Marie

17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? I'm procrastinating on editing a session. I have a very busy day tomorrow. I want to finish reading my book.

18. Name 3 things you bought yesterday? As it's 12:16am on Friday, I'm going with Thursday - diapers, candy for the class party, gift bags

19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Dr. Pepper, Dr. Pepper, water

20. Current worry right now? more than I should be...economy, settling into our house, water leaks in the house, the kids, etc.

21. Current hate? the water in my bedroom carpet

22. Favorite place to be? Walt Disney World, or China, or home, or visiting family....

23. How did you bring in the New Year? over at a friends house playing games with the kids (to bring in 2008 and will do the same for 2009...same friends even!)

24. Where would you like to go? Back to China! :)

25. Name three people who will complete this? I have no idea.

26. Do you own flip flops? Yes, and I practically lived in them this summer.


27. What shirt are you wearing? a t-shirt

28. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? never had any, but I'm guessing no.

29. Can you whistle? Sort of.

30. Favorite color? purple

31. Would you be a pirate? Perhaps, if it could be a "cool" one like in Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but if it were like they really existed then No.

32. What songs do you sing in the shower? none. If you ever heard my singing voice you'd understand!

33. Favorite girl's name? Katelyn

34. Favorite boy's name? this one is not fair....I have 2 boys! ;)

35. What's in your pocket right now? I'm wearing sweatpants right now.

36. Last thing that made you laugh? my kids

37. Best bed sheets as a child? Is it bad that I can't remember?

38. Worst injury you've ever had? Injury? Hm...stitches where I almost cut the end of my finger off I would have to say.

39. Do you love where you live? Yes.

40. How many TVs do you have in your house? 2

41. Who is your loudest friend? Loudest? Oh I'm not sure I want to write this one down! ;)

42. How many dogs do you have? None.

43. Does someone have a crush on you? I hope my husband does.

45. What is your favorite book? currently it'd have to be Twilight (the entire 4 books), of all time...I'm just not sure. I loved Gone with the Wind, the Harry Potter Series, the Babylon 5 fiction, the Xanth fantasy series, Jane Eyre, Wrinkle in Time series, Little Women, and oh so many more favorites!

46. What is your favorite candy? banana foster doves, or dark chocolate dove with caramel

47. Do you know all the words to the Fresh Prince theme song? I know more than I should, and if it were playing I probably could sing along.

48. What song do you want played at your funeral? oooh...this is a tough one.

49. What were you doing 12 AM last night? editing a session, or was I ordering? I can't remember. I was on the computer, doing something to photos in photoshop!

50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? ewwww, there's water squishing between my toes on the carpet!!! (i.e. not something you want to wake up to)

1 year ago

1 year ago, Xi Xiao Lan was placed in our arms in a cold apartment like building down an alley in Kunming, China. It seemed like such an incogruous location for such momentuous occasions as adoption. But, that civil affairs building was the place where she became Katie.




I often look back over the photos and I see now just how frightened she was. I see the terror. I see the sadness and grief. It breaks my heart so much that I struggle to just see those images now. I love them for what they represent, but I hurt for the pain she was feeling, pain that we caused. I feel guilt over that pain. Yet, I love this girl so much and so thankful we took that leap of faith to say yes to having the chance to be her family.






(this one is from April, so 4+ months with us and we were getting lots of smiles, true smiles)


I think of her foster mother often, how much she had to go through to release this precious fiesty little girl back to the orphanage to be adopted by us. I know she was well loved by this foster family, and I know that this anniversary carries sad memories for them. I wish with all my heart that the orphanage there would allow us contact with the foster families. I would love to give them an update on our little girl. I know that their love, their affection, has helped her to become wonderfully attached to us. The foster family loved Katie fully and had to have deep grief. Katie herself grieved heavily, so heavily that it has taken this entire year before we have fully seen her personality. We have had to be very aware of attachment, bonding, and grief processes. Katie took a long time getting around to trusting us and loving us, but we're there. I know we still have work to go in this, but we know she's attached to us.

We still see this self-soothing technique.

But it often quickly turns into her showing us her personality!


For example, we did not get our first hug that we initiated until she'd been with us about 6-8 weeks. It took another 4 months before she would initiate a hug. It took her about 8 weeks to throw a temper tantrum when we told her no to something. It took her almost 12 weeks to "talk back" to us and disagree. It took 10 months for her give us a kiss. She still does not cuddle well, but she will sit in our laps (or beside us). It took months before she would let us out of her sight in the house. Those early months I knew she was trying to please us, and I could see that she was still fearful of us leaving her. I can mostly only see it for certain in looking back at the photos we have. I documented as much as I possibly could of her transistion, and today I can see how very slowly that adjustment to us took.


It's been an incredible journey, one I would love to do again. I do not know if we will ever go back to China to adopt another child, but at this point I hope we can. Katie is the center of attention in our family so often, and everyone in our family loves on her. I love seeing how well she has fit in, and it seems like she has always been a part of our family. We are so blessed to have her in our lives.

Quirky houses

One of the fun things about moving into a new home is learning the "quirks" of that home. You would think with a new home that you watched be built, there would be few quirks. Yes, there probably are fewer quirks, but we still have them.

Take Saturday evening for example. I decided to vacuum the bonus room upstairs. I had the Christmas tree plugged in, the space heater going (another quirk of that room), and the vacuum. It's a woefully empty room at the moment. :) I made it about halfway across the room, and then everything stopped. I'd flipped the breaker.

Great. "Electrical problem?"

I entered my "tester" mode, and recreated it with exact same set of circumstances. Yep, tripped the breaker again. Tried a 3rd time, this time timing things. It happens in about 3 minutes. Flipped it again. Then, I tried a different outlet for the vacuum cleaner. Tripped it again. Dh decided to try it with JUST the vacuum cleaner (he's the enginerd), and it didn't trip. Added in the space heater, and it didn't trip.

My bonus room carpet is probably the MOST vacuumed carpet on the planet at the moment.

Plugged in the tree. We tripped it. Hmmm....the tree? We tested a different outlet with the tree lights (couldn't find the outlet tester). Yep, tripped it again. Dh watched the lights the next time, and we think the lights actually have a short in the wire and that our "quirky" upstairs room is actually fine on electrical loads.

I hope so, but I really don't want to take down the tree, re-string the tree, JUST to test the lights.

We're compromising. No plugging in that tree, and doing other electrical things in that room (turning on a TV, playing games, plugging in lamps, running that vacuum again). After Christmas, we'll buy 3 strands of lights and string them together to test the lights theory. At least I don't have to re-decorate a tree again.

Kids and the economy

I do not truly know how much my kids know about what is going on in the economy, nor do I fully know how much they understand about our personal finances. But I recently read an article online from Mary Hunt talking about kids and the economy. She had some rather good points in it.

The following was my favorite part, that lightbulb moment if you will:

"Rather than telling your kids, “We can’t afford that,” say, “We don’t choose to spend our money in that way.” Now you have delivered a positive message that you have money but you make intelligent choices about how to spend it. That makes kids feel safe. It tells them that their parents are protecting them. When you say “We cannot afford this or that or to go here or there,” kids hear, “We are poor. If we weren’t so poor we could have this or that and go here or there.” They quickly assume that money is the key to happiness. If we just had enough money we could be perfectly happy."


I grew up with "We can't afford that" and that is what I tend to tell my own kids when they ask for that pack of chewing gum. I never had a good response as to why we couldn't afford the chewing gum but could afford the bag of chocolates. KWIM? I have also observed that the kids are becoming more interested in having money, and that if they had MORE money they'd be better off than they are now. That thought process I've been seeing has been disturbing me, and I think we finally have a good idea of what to change in ourselves to change their outlooks on money.

I hope at least.

Because, really, personal finances are all about choices and I want the kids to know we're making choices not reacting to what we do or do not have in our bank account. What we choose to spend our money on, what we choose to not spend our money on. Whether the times of choosing are lean or flush times. I want them to start realizing that they too are making choices on what they spend money on, and I want them to hopefully make intelligent choices (well, at least think their choices through). So, if you see this Momma mumbling to her kids while grocery shopping, just pass on by when you hear "I am choosing to purchase this box of generic cheerios instead of the brand name one because that means we can also buy that bag of chocolate...."

;)

internet and birthday

Almost 2 weeks without internet. AND PHONE! It was rough. It really and truly was. The worst part was the twitching, it kept me up at night. I couldn't sleep. I read books, well, okay ONE set of books over and over and over. I've decided I'm getting my name changed.

Okay, maybe not.

But we finally did get internet back today. Luckily we still had our Voice Over IP phone so I also got phone. Otherwise, it would be until the 15th of December before we got phone back. I don't want to even attempt to describe how I would have looked at that point. Or most likely, how the cell phone overage minutes would have looked. NOT pretty people as we're currently at least 100 minutes over. Yes, and that's at 45 cents a minute. *faint*

I guess it will be Rice and Beans, Beans and Rice for dinner a few nights....or a month worth of dinners.

However, in EVEN BIGGER NEWS.....


JM turned 10 years old today! My baby. My little itty bitty baby turned 10 years old. How did he get to be a DECADE old? He's in double digits. *sniff* I remember holding him for the 2nd time like it was yesterday.

Yes, I said 2nd time. What of it? Huh? I was crazy drugged from the general anesthetic the first time Dh placed JM in my arms (while keeping his own securely fastened around my arms so I didn't drop the cute itty bitty baby). I was almost half asleep, and it had been hours since delivery. Dh wanted me to hold him before anyone else and visitors were coming....and well...I don't remember much beyond what is in pictures now. So, yes, I remember the 2nd time I held him! :) It was actually December 5th, but like just after midnight and JM was quickly approaching 24 hours old at the time. *sniff* See, he was already growing up too fast at that point.

My cute itty bitty baby is now this almost 5 foot tall 80ish pound boy....who is quickly approaching "young man" status. He has less than 6 inches to go before he's taller than me. He loves science. He adores thrill rides. He's the best big brother I've ever seen. He's a great kid. He really is. I just can not believe he is 10. Wasn't he just 2 years old? Like yesterday?

When he was 1:


November 2008:

It's cold out there!

Want to know HOW cold?

a little bit ago we saw some white fluffy things falling from the sky.

I yelled at the kids, "HEY LOOK OUTSIDE!!!!"

We watched in wide-eyed wonder for the 15 minutes the white fluffy things fell. I had to remind the kids, "It won't stick." But it was beautiful to behold. I wonder if that will qualify for our "snow" this year?

Still no internet. 1.5 weeks, and it also means NO phone. I miss talking to my friends!