Before & After: Framing Faces

Before (SOOC):

After (Paint Shop Pro 9):

The Beamon Family

Saturday I took photos of this wonderful family.  These are a few of my favorites.

See full gallery HERE.

Just a stream of thoughts...

Not much has been happening on my blog this month.  The summer has been busy & hot and I just simply have not felt like putting effort into it.  July zipped by.  Spent the fourth with family; went to Hill's Alive Christian music festival mid-month for vacation.  Took the kids to Mt. Rushmore, Reptile Gardens & Cosmos.  Got to see Sanctus Real; BarlowGirl & Newsboys.  Made small talk with Jars of Clay on the elevator at the hotel.  Had fun with my family.  This week I have been preoccupied with planning my sister's bridal shower.  I did a photo shoot on Saturday evening and earlier met with a couple who asked me to take photos at their wedding which is coming up next week.  Also, I finally got my curriculum ordered so I can start homeschooling Eden soon.   Just busy.  

There is just so much going on with wedding stuff, photography stuff, homeschool stuff and my anniversary.  Stuff, stuff, stuff.  I only have one free weekend between now and my sister's wedding in October. I am excited about all this "stuff" but at the same time it can seem a bit overwhelming if I think about it all at once.  I was planning on starting Eden's school schedule a month from now but I'm wondering if it would be better if I just waited until Oct when I can really concentrate on it.  I suspect she'll breeze right through it anyway.  I guess I'll decide after I've had a chance to look through the material.

Acacia is 10 months old now.  Hard to believe how soon we'll be celebrating her first birthday.  She is a proficient crawler.  She pulls herself up to things.  Will attempt to walk if we're holding her hands but doesn't seem too anxious to try that quite yet.  She still doesn't have any teeth and isn't the talker my other girls were.  By the time Eden was this age she was communicating with us very well.  Acacia is content to just say 'daddy'.  She doesn't even babble that much.  She is a happy, alert little gal though.  She is an eater.  I've been feeding her several jars of baby food a day and am still nursing every couple hours.  It is so strange though how I have been feeling about nursing lately.  I nursed Eden until she was 14 months old.  I weaned her before I was really ready because I needed to go on a trip without her and my parents wouldn't babysit unless she was weaned.  I was always kind of sad that I quit before I was ready.  With Jasmine I nursed her until she was 16 months old and that was about a month longer than I wanted to.  With Acacia...I'm just not enjoying it like I did before.  I am already ready to quit (but won't until she doesn't need it anymore...no formula for me).  I think I am just too busy & distracted.  At bedtime when I nurse her I love it...I soak her up but during the day I just can't seem to mentally slow down enough to appreciate the experience.  She is a fine nurser but she has a bad habit of scratching the dickens out of my chest, pulling my hair and kicking me in the face.  Plus whenever the other kids are around she is easily distracted by them and therefore does the suck, release, suck, release business that gets everybody wet. 

Spiritually I feel like I am in a dry spell.  I haven't been putting much effort into my relationship with God.  I pray superficially throughout the day and let my heart sing along to my worship music but I haven't been studying the Word, I haven't been making it to Bible study or church.  I still love Jesus and seek to please Him, I am just having a hard time summoning up the enthusiasm for fellowship.  I could really use your prayers---WE could really use your prayers in this regard.  For me the desire is there but the motivation is completely lacking. 

I guess this could be said about my life in general right now...I have desire (for God, for accomplishment, for food, for improvement) but I have very little motivation for anything.  I've been blaming it on the temperature but perhaps there is more to it than that?  I don't know.  Anyway...just wanted to get some of this out there in the world and hope that the juices would get to moving. 

Looking for motivation and inspiration.

 

Before & After: My Niece

Before (SOOC):

After (editing in Paint Shop Pro):

A Friday Funny...

A little homemaker humor to start the weekend off...

----------------------------------------------------------

One afternoon a man came home from work to find total mayhem in his house. His three children were outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard. The door of his wife's car was open, as was the front door to the house.

Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall. In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door.

He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she may be ill, or that something serious had happened. He found her lounging in the bedroom, still curled in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went.

He looked at her bewildered and asked, "What happened here today?"

She again smiled and answered, "You know every day when you come home from work and ask me what in the world I did today?"

"Yes" was his incredulous reply.

She answered, "Well, today I didn't do it."

--------------------------------------------------------

Before & After: My sister & me

Today is my little sister's 22nd birthday and in her honor I decided to "restore" an old photo of us together from 1990.   Happy Birthday, Jill!  I love you.

Before:

After:

Edited in Paint Shop Pro.

Glasses

Last week I took my girls to the optometrist for an eye check-up.  He said that Eden is a bit far-sighted & Jasmine is a bit near-sighted.  He said in general all kids are a little bit far-sighted but Eden was more far-sighted than average.  He told us that we'll just wait and see how things go for Jasmine since she is still so little he isn't too worried about her yet.  He prescribed reading glasses for Eden though.  He says she really only needs to wear them when she's reading or writing since she is starting kindergarten this year.  I told him we were home schooling and he said that works extra good because then I have more control over when she wears her glasses and when she doesn't.

Everyone on my side of the family wears glasses.  I am the only one with decent vision.  I just got glasses a couple years ago and I don't need to wear them very often.  I generally only need them when I am working on the computer for long stretches of time. I rarely wear them.  Russ is the also the only adult on his side of the family that doesn't have glasses.   My mom & dad have both been wearing glasses since early grade school.  My mom's vision is so bad that the eye doctor was surprised she didn't get hit by a car in preschool!  In spite of a family history of vision problems, with Russ & I both having the good vision in the family I was expecting our kids to be glasses free.  The doctor did say there is a chance they could grow out of it but we always worry about the eyes becoming dependent on the glasses and making the eyes weaker.  Oh well...I'm glad that we know about their vision problems before they cause problems.   And Boy!   Doesn't Eden look cute in her tiny little glasses?  :)

Five Question Friday

1. What is one food you could eat everyday?

Pizza...

2. Are you working in the career you thought you would be when you were 18?

Nope...from K til graduation I was going to be a teacher.  I went to college majored in Secondary Education.  Two years in I totally changed my mind and changed my major.  So...  But I am starting to homeschool my daughter here in the fall so in a way I guess I'm going to teach after all.  I just won't get paid for it.

3. What is something that you wish you would have done when you were younger and you didn't?

I wish I had been a foreign exchange student to Denmark.  I wanted to but it cost a lot and so my parents didn't want to pay for it and I was too scared to push for it so it didn't happen but I always wish I had.

4. What color are your kitchen walls?

"ginger"

5. Do you remember what your very first favorite song was?

Not really...but in junior high I listened to a lot of country & I had a cassette tape "Heart of Rock" that I listened to over & over.  I loved "Let's Hear it for the Boy" by Deniece Williams for awhile.  And "She's in Love with the Boy" by Trisha Yearwood.   

Before & After: Young Love

This is a photo I took last week of my newly engaged sister & her fiance during our day at the lake.  I thought it was sweet.

Before:

After:

Edited in Paint Shop Pro.
--------------------------------------------------

Basic run down of what I changed (for Julia):

-Cloned out my neice's head
-Upped the contrast & changed brightness level.
-Upped saturation.
-Tweaked the color balance.
-Added personalized vignette.
-Added texture layer.

-------------------------------------------------

My sister is engaged...

...and I got to take their engagement photos!

Here are a few of my favorites...

Jill & Vaughn

      

To see full gallery go HERE.

Cute things my kids have said--Part IV

May 17, 2010--I was teaching Eden her address & phone number today...after going over it several times, I asked her, "So, what's your address?" She answered with a question in her voice, "Slash dot com?"

May 20, 2010--Eden: "It's raining cotton today, Mom! Did you know that?"

May 24, 2010--Eden said, "My eyeballs tell a story & my eyebrows have a secret."

June 1, 2010--Eden talking to her cousin, Gabe, about God: "God is up where He can see everything. Did you know that? And when we die we get to go up to heaven. I can't wait to see Him. Can you?"

June 8, 2010--Eden: (While watching the new Alice in Wonderland) "I'm glad I'm not in that world." and "I'm never gonna fall into a rabbit hole."

June 10, 2010--Eden told me that she is going to Bavalon (Babylon) to talk to the king. He wants to marry her but she's gonna say no because he's a bad guy and then throw him in the lion den! Haha...I think she mixing the stories of Esther & Daniel.

June 11, 2010--I was talking to Acacia & said, "Are you hungry? Do you want some baby food?" At that point Jasmine spoke up and said, "I'm hungry. I want some kid food."

June 15, 2010--I told Eden that she had 10 min to finish cleaning her room...she said she was finished. I was impressed until I realized that she used the "stuff everything under the bed trick."  It didn't pass the Mommy inspection!

June 23, 2010--Eden told me that her boyfriend did everything she wanted him to do. Like drink coffee in the morning and write in the afternoon. She says "He's earning stickers!"

June 26, 2010--Acacia started crawling.

June 27, 2010--Eden said, "When I turn sixteen I want to skate." *Pause* "And have a boyfriend."

June 28, 2010--Eden came up to me and said (out of the blue) "On my next birthday can I have a piñata with vegetables in it? Instead of candy?"

 

The Blessed "Grateful Giveaway" Winner

And the winner is...Ryan!  

Congrats!

You are indeed one blessed man...

You are a person of character & integrity.

A wonderful role model for your students.

A loving husband with a wife who is beautiful inside & out.

Your child(ren) are quite blessed to have you for a father

and your parents to have you for a son.

You are (and have always been) very special to me, as well.

Thank you for the ways in which you have enriched & blessed my life.

I pray that you continue to serve your Heavenly Father with a full & pure heart and your family with authority & wisdom. 

I pray that your passion for Jesus & doing what is right only intensifies with time.  

I pray that God will open your eyes to the opportunities He has placed in your life 

and that you will continue living with a grateful heart & a willingness to pay it forward!

Love & Blessings. :)

Gina  

Day at the Lake

Wednesday, I went to the lake with my extended family.  It was a lot of fun.  The girls enjoyed playing in the water & I enjoyed the opportunity to photograph my family having fun!  A few shots...

***Don't forget...you've got a few more hours to enter my Grateful Giveaway.  I'll be selecting & announcing the winner this evening (Friday, July 2nd) around 9 pm MST.***