One of my all time favorite jokes

My aunt sent me the following joke in an email recently. I had to post it because it is one of my all time favorites. If you've already heard it, I hope you don't mind a retelling. If you haven't, enjoy!

With all the new technology in fertility recently, a 65-year-old friend of mine was able to give birth. When she was discharged from the hospital and went home, I went to visit.

"May I see the new baby?" I asked.

"Not yet," she said. "I'll make coffee and we can visit for a while first."

Thirty minutes had passed, and I asked, "May I see the new baby now?"

"No, not yet," she said.

After another few minutes had elapsed, I asked again, "May I see the baby now?"

"No, not yet," replied my friend.

Growing very impatient, I asked, "Well, when can I see the baby?"

"When he cries," she told me.

"When he CRIES?" I demanded. "Why do I have to wait until he CRIES?"

"BECAUSE I FORGOT WHERE I PUT HIM, OK?!"

A Tiny Little Visitor

Guess who's come for a visit with his mommy and daddy?






(my self portrait :)

Playing w/ Portraits

Today I got out my tripod to try some portraits.

The last time we used the tripod was for a big family pic at my sister's house.



It worked pretty well!



When I took Aiden's picture the other day, it made me want to learn to photograph better portraits. So I figured "practice makes perfect". Good think I have kids who love to pose for pics!

Emily wanted to pose with her kitty:




Matt tried to be very serious:



And Michael balanced a lion on his head:



I wanted to try using the tripod since I get a little shaky when trying to be too still. I expeced it to make me feel limited, though, since it was less mobile.

I was surprised to find that I loved using it!

The tripod made it so easy to take picture after picture without worrying about the pics being blurry because I didn't hold still enough or trying to make sure I was still focussed where I needed to be.

I just set the person where I wanted them (next to the window for natural lighting), focused in how I wanted it to be, then forgot about all of that and just watched for great moments to happen.


Very nice! I think my tripod might just become one of my best friends!

My 4 Season Garden Fairy

Steve and Joy have both commented that I should take pics of my Garden Fairy in all four seasons... but I already have! How could I resist? She is a favorite of mine! :)

Spring



She is adorable, and I love taking pictures of her.

Summer



And not only that, but I love this particular spot in the garden. It is shady and a great place to sit and contemplate things.

Fall



So I keep coming back.

Winter



And no matter what the weather is, she is always reading.



Sounds like most of my family members! :)

Almost 2 months old

He is simply too cute!

Under the Lilacs

I'm trying out my decision, so I'll post it here and see how I feel about it tomorrow... then I'll enter it to GardeningGoneWild.com's Photo Contest, Picture This: Winter Light if I haven't changed my mind again!

After all was said and done, I decided to go with this one and name it "Under the Lilacs". (Sounds catchy, like a great book title! ;)) Here it is:



Take a look at the big picture on my website. I love it!

I was going to go with this one at first:



But I realized that I didn't like the "what-you-see-is-what-you-get" matter of factness about it. There was no mystery, nothing further to contemplate. It is beautiful with its glittering snow and ice, but I got bored with it pretty quickly.


Then my heart got set on this one:



And really, I still love it. The backlighting is wonderfully subtle. Very nice. If I change my mind it will to be to go back to the this one.


But this pic...


It's lighting is just wonderful: The final rays of a winter's sunset playing one last game of tag through the lilac stems are incredible; the light glinting off of the fairy's foot, and the glow that the fading sun lends to her hair and face add such depth and are wonderful finishing touches.

Sigh. I love it when things go so right with a picture. Most of the time it is such a crap shoot for me. I'll take a pic thinking it will be amazing, and instead it turns out static and looking very 2 dimensional. Other times I'll take a pic of something entirely different, but the underlying beauty will catch my eye, and sure enough when I crop it and polish it a little, there is a diamond beneath the soot.

The close up shots of the plants I absolutely loved, but decided not to use since they didn't have as much of a glow of light about them. I'll use them here and there on the blog, maybe to put on a calendar, or perhaps to print out and frame.

This one with the delicate branches left me in awe when I saw individual snowflakes clinging to the branch. Did you notice them? (click the pic to enlarge so you can see the detail)



Someday I would love to take a photography class and learn the tricks of the trade at the hands of a Master. For now I will be happy to glean gems of information as I come across them.

Thanks so much for helping me see these photos through your eyes. I sure appreciate you helping me! <3

In the Running:

I've stewed over this photo contest for the past month. I've taken pics and agonized over how to lighten, brighten, and compose. I've begged and pleaded with my family to "please look, just one more time", and I've bugged you all to vote about which you like. I guess you could say I have a one-track-mind.

But after all is said and done, I've come up with 9 pics that have been voted on in other posts *and* that I really, really like. (sorry to my boys whose favorite photos I'm not using.) And here they are. (and I will *really* need your help now!)

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

10)

The contest is allowing us to have the long side of the pic be 640 px, and since blogspot only allows up to 400 px, here is the link to
my website, where you can see them the way the judge for the contest will.

I hope that you enjoy looking at my pics and that you don't just do it because I want you to, but either way, thanks for helping out. ♥

More Winter Pics

Today I woke up to a light dusting of snow, so I grabbed my camera and headed outside to try to capture more "Winter's Light", for the GardeningGoneWild.com photo contest.

1.

(or brighter?)



2.




3.



4.



5.



6.

Entries for the contest have to be submitted by the 21st. Which to chose, which to chose? Help me out by telling me which is your favorite, okay? :) And if you haven't chosen from the last set, here they are again.

Thanks! <3

Winter Pics

There is another photo contest over at gardening gone wild (gardeninggonewild.com) that I'm trying to pick a pic for. The theme is: winter's light. I've gone through all of my winter pics over and over and came up with a handful. And now I'm stuck. So will you help me? Pleeeaase? Tell me your favorite pic out of all of these will you? The one that expresses "winter's light" best and has the best composition. I appreciate your patience with me. :) (btw, the first two of these look nearly identical. One has just been enhanced with a little extra color. So, if that photo happens to be your favorite, look close at the two and see if you like the warmer or colder colors of it, ok? )

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

Thanks! You all are the best! <3