My Birthday!

I thought Anson was going to be at school on my birthday, but since he had his interview in North Carolina he was home. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to spend the day with me because he had a counseling appointment and a massage scheduled.

So when I was planning what I wanted to do for my birthday, I wanted to go to a movie - alone, which, I was kind of looking forward to, then I was going to pick up some flowers, and go out to dinner with Anson later that night. I also wanted to donate blood because it had been years since I last donated. Instead, my mother calls me the night before to see what my plans were and she wanted to see the movie with me. We went to see "Life As We Know It" and we were the only ones in the theater. Then, it turns out we had forgotten that Anson Jr. had an overnight camp out up at Mt. Hood and didn't want to leave the younger two boys home alone, so we picked up some pizza and a movie. I also bought myself flowers which I have really enjoyed! Oh and I don't like traditional cake so I picked up some strawberry cheesecake. I was the only one to have some though, I guess nobody else likes it! More for me right! :)

I wasn't able to donate blood that day - I ran out of time, but I look forward to doing it on Monday!

Here are some pictures of my beautiful flowers!

If I could...

How cool would it be to travel the world spending time in the most beautiful places on earth taking pictures and exploring the world around you?  I came across a photographer's blog a little while back who conducts workshops all over the world and I saw that he was doing one in the Olympic National Park...one of my favorite places - ever - (and right in my own backyard). It would be amazing to go there with someone who knows the area, and knows the right light and locations to allow for the best possible images. To spend four days visiting wildflower meadows,  rainforests, rugged seacoasts, mountain peaks, and seeing wildlife would be a dream to say the least. Since my birthday is in just a few days, I've been thinking of things that I would like to do for it and attending that workshop would be my dream day, if money wasn't an option. Instead, I'll probably take an adventurous trip down to the movie theater, which I'm okay with because someday, I will attend one of these workshops or conduct one of my own! (Not really, but it sounded good)!:)

North Carolina & Indiana Update

Anson booked his flight for North Carolina and we went out to Kohls today and bought a new sweater for the interview. Anson was advised against wearing a suit or dark colors because last year some hopeful interns made a bad impression by looking stuffy. Good thing I went with him because he picked out some pretty questionable things! :)

His interview is Wednesday morning but I'll be taking him to the airport late Monday night. He'll be excused from his classes that week and the following week when he interviews in Indiana. It's going to be pretty busy for him, not only with the flying back and forth, the jet lag, and the time zone changes, but he's also working on the first 3 chapters of his dissertation that is due in the beginning of February! He's been pretty busy with it and has been feeling really guilty about not spending as much time with the boys or giving me the attention I need.....which is alot!  He's pretty much been working non-stop and once he got back from Seattle last night he went straight to the table to work. I laid across his lap, looked up at him and asked if he remembered me, his wife, and told him if he would carry me around on his hip for the rest of the night then I would appreciate it! No such luck. Oh well...

It is pretty exciting to be this close to him being done with everything though! For almost 4 years he has commuted to Seattle every week, sometimes twice a week. I can't sleep when he's away. I try to delay it for as long as possible, which isn't good when I wake up at 7am to take Anson Jr. to seminary. Some nights I only get 3-4 hours of sleep, but that should end soon because he'll be completely done commuting at the end of April! It will be so nice and something I REALLY look forward to!

Son Silhouettes

I just came across this photo and thought it was so cute. This is Ashton reluctantly posing for me so that I could test out my silhouette taking technique. He's such a cutie. He asked if I would be paying him for "working".

I can't wait to do more silhouettes without the giant tree branches in the background. Here's an interesting silhouette of Ammon and our dog Lucy.

I've been thinking....

Last year Anson forgot my birthday and since then I haven't let him forget that he forgot! In his defense he was at school in Seattle and working on a huge project...but still, my feelings were hurt. A long time ago somebody told me that if I didn't like something, change it. And that's how I'm going about celebrating my birthday this year. It's next week and I'm not going to sit around and wait for somebody to say or do something for me, I'm going to go out and do something for myself. What? I don't know. The kids will be in school and Anson will be in Seattle (during the day at least) and I'm going to have some fun. It will most likely be wet and raining so whatever I do will be indoors. It won't be anything big, maybe just a movie by myself...(is that lame?) or a trip to the Portland Art Museum.

Holy AEB!

I'm a slow learner...especially if I'm learning something on my own, which I'm doing now. I learn best by being shown, so this whole "figuring out how to use my camera thing" is frustrating at times but it's also exciting. The more I use it, the more I want to discover what else it can do and that has been really fun. I wish there were more pretty things here in the Northwest to look at during the winter because I would spend all day taking pictures. Spring and summer can't come soon enough. Until then, I try to make the best of it.

So back to slow learning....I just found out that my camera has AEB! Auto Bracketing Exposure, where all I have to do (after I set it up) is push a button and my camera continuously  takes 3 bracketed shots: Standard, decreased exposure and increased exposure. And here I was manually changing it and taking 1 shot at a time. Things just got a little bit easier and that makes me happy. Here are some recent pictures that I've taken using this technique.

1 + 1 = CRAZY!

I started another blog. Not a new one, just another one. I know how crazy that is, but I've been having a lot of fun with it so far. I'm taking part in a 365 Day Photo Challenge, where I take a picture a day for a year. I just thought it was a cool idea. Plus it helps me to be creative everyday. Not only do I have to find something to photograph, which is the hard part but I also get to edit it, which is the best part! Here's the URL. Check it out!

http://myprojectthreesixtyfive.blogspot.com