The super fast Derby car...

3.16.09

Well, still no luck with the lost pictures. I think my CF card for the camera became corrupt. If so, better the CF card than the camera. So I am still working on getting pics...

In the meantime, here is the car with a finished paint job. The thing had enough coating or whatever it was that it probably could have slid down the track just like this, but we did put some wheels on it.....

Well, crap.

I forgot to put up a picture last night, because I was so tired when we got home from dinner at my moms. But here is a picture I TOOK last night so that should count for something...

3.14.09

And today was a HUGE day for us, because it was the Pinewood Derby for Mykas Cub Scout pack. Myka and Josh worked so hard on the car, and Myka did a ton of it himself, which in and of itself is a big acomplishment - he had a great time doing it. And it paid off for him today. But I won't tell you how just yet because I have (had?) some great pictures from today, BUT something really screwy is going on with either my camera or my memory card so I am working on getting some pictures, then I'll make a nice post about our big "Derby Day".

We also had some special visitors here for it as well, Greatest Grandma and Greatest Grandpa from Georgia, and Papa came to watch.

THEN, later tonight about 7:45pm we were going out for celebratory ice cream, and we saw the SPACE SHUTTLE that had just launched. It was very cool! No I didn't have the camera, but I wish I did. But, trust me, it was super cool to be able so see it, even though we're on the other side of the state! It was just a stream of orange smoke, then we saw the flash of the rocket after it broke apart from the boosters.

So, all in all, a great day, but I am having some "Oh, crap" moments here hoping I can get my pictures back. Thank goodness Josh's dad was there taking pics too, so if I lost mine, I can get a copy of his.

Getting it done

3.13.09 - Myka came home the other day after Tae Kwon Do and with the time change, it is still so light out, that everyone was outside in the yard so he hopped up on Josh's truck and started his homework.

Lego creation & and some fun

So I have had a Nikon D70 for about 3 years now, and it is a great camera (so they say). It is the best darn thing on automatic... well since that's all I knew how to do on it until now. I have always wanted to really learn the SLR cameras and lenses so I could take those pictures that make you say "Wow!" instead of my normal ones of "What is that?"

So today, thanks to The Pioneer Woman's Tutorials on basic photography, I have figured out what the aperture and the shutter speed mean and do. So it was a baby step forward, and one I hope I remember tomorrow. So below is my pic of the day, and then the rest are others I took today playing with my new found knowlegde.

Myka's Lego contraption we built - it's a real candy dispenser. Fill it up in the top hole there, and push that thingymajig on the right, it goes in, candy falls into a smaller hole, and when the thingymajig pops back out - TA DA: you have some candy.

My fist picture not on full auto-mode. "Bear Cub" is our newest family member and 100 millionth stuffed animal. At church, each child got a stuffed animal with a tag attached that had a child's name on it, who was living at a childrens home. We bring it home and pray for the child who's name is on the tag.

I had fun getting creative with this one in Photoshop, but this one I used a f-stop of 4.5 on the camera to get Josh in focus and the background blurry. I used the A (aperture priority) mode on the camera since I am too scared to go full manual. Thanks again to Pioneer Woman's great tutorials for walking me through how to do this.

This was Myka 70 years ago, when cell phones were only for the cool kids who liked to talk on the phone. Yeah, so another fun Photoshop action, and this was tonight when Myka talked to Greatest Grandma & Grandpa about their upcoming visit this Sunday.

Whew. So nothing spectacular but I am having fun playing with pictures now.

10 minute escape...

Sometimes, when the going gets tough, the tough (me) goes to Starbucks.

Photo a day... give or take

Ok so I have been really inspired by a cool trend in the online blogging world: something a day. Well most of the ones I have seen are a photo a day, a.k.a. Photo 365, etc. So, while I am scared to commit myself to a photo a day for a whole dang year, I figure I'll just call mine a photo a day...or so.

This way it kinda forces me to work on my photo taking skills, and I get to play in Photoshop more.

3/09/09 Here is my Photo from YESTERDAY (nothing like starting off a day late). My sweet boy fresh and ready for school on Monday morning (note the HAPPY smile!)

3/10/09 And here is todays. One of my newest time consuming things: The 7th book in the Sookie Stackhouse series. One of the most fun series I have read!

All Together Dead (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Book 7)

Now, I mentioned some other cool once a day bloggers, and here are my two favs at the moment:

If you have kids, especially boys (or a husband - they count the same for this site) you need to check out A LEGO A Day

And if you like to crockpot, this one is worth checking out too A Year of CrockPotting

Ok.. off to finish a care plan so I can finish my book, and sleep somewhere in there too. And watch American Idol.

Downhill for now...

Ok well my resolution to post regularly on here has pretty much gone down the tube so far...

But I'll fill in the blanks a little, and will tell you that the time since my last post (about the 3rd week in Jan) until about the third week in February was probably one of the hardest times I've gone through - well at least from what I haven't blocked out LOL Joking.

So anyhow here is a run down of what was going on in the course of a few weeks but note it all started at the same time.
1. I got a PT job at the hospital - while happy, I wonder what I was thinking to take this on.

2.I started semester #3 of Nursing: MedSurg/Adult I, Advanced Phamacology, and Intro to Mental Health. Not to mention I still have clinical days and the infamous care plans.

3. We thought Josh was being held hostage by a beligerant customer. No Joke. BUT thankfully the guy settled down, apologized, and bought a bigger shed. No idea what was going on is his world but the guy wasn't right.

4. Got a nice big tire blowout on the way home one day. Yeah. Lovely.

5. Myka was having a really hard time at school, more bad days than good days, and we were all frusturated, stressed, and feeling like we didn't know what to do. I was crying all the time, and it was so bad I didn't even want to send him to school....

Which leads us to the major development.....

6.In our long journey to find out what's going on in his little world, we did some testing on several IQ "categories". We discovered things he really good at and scored high on, but others he didn't. With all the mumble jumble of what it means, right brain this/left brain that, we discovered that they way he is processing the info to get it "out" is where the trouble is occuring.

The result ------> Learning Disabilities. Hmmmm, FINALLY we figured out that THIS is probably contributing to the frusturation, crying, anxiety, esteem issues, etc We even went to a neurologist in Dec because motor tics started occuring. But thanks to our fantabulous child psychologist, Dr. Pete, who has been helping us along the way - we finally got some solid answers.

Good News -------> Answers

Bad News -------> Found out that as a result, we needed to move Myka from his Christian school which we loved, to a public school that had the resources to help him. FULL panic mode because I have been scared to death of the public school system here. Not to mention we really needed to move him now, because time couldn't be wasted getting him in an environment best for him...

So this is where major stress occured - I didn't know where to begin. I was sad, mad, happy, confused, hopeful, disappointed, and everything in between. PLUS remember #1 - that new Part Time job? Yeah, well training started the week this all happened. So I had school M-W, training all day Thurs and Fri. NO time to try and make calls, go to schools, handle this & that, etc. Several crying sessions took place during this time.

But by Gods Grace everything fell into place for us. Doors opened, people reached out, prayers were answered, and we were able to get him in a top notch public school that had tons of great resources to teach him the way he learns and does best. And would you know?

HE IS SO HAPPY! He's like a different kid when I pick him up from school. He feels good about himself, so far no major anxiety or frustration, and no more motor tics and angry moods in the car on the way home. And he doesn't feel like a failure. WOW. AMEN!

Soooo.....now that this is all behind us, I feel like I can breathe again! I look back, and know there is no way we would have made it through all that without God. I look back and can't believe I didn't become a major alcoholic after that. Joking. Again. But still - I can't believe we got through it.

So that is kind of a catch up. Now I am off to bed.... I have a good book waiting. No drink. But a good book.