Tulips

I planted some orange tulips, though they don't look that orange, last weekend around my mail box. They are forecasting snow this weekend. They've put out winter weather advisories already. Only in Oklahoma can it be 80 one week and snowing the next. They said our latest snow was the first part of April and my aunt said the almaniac predicted one more winter storm for us. I wanted a foot of snow all winter long, but now that I've had a taste of spring, I'm not sure I really want snow now. Oh well. Be nifty pictures snow falling and redbuds in full bloom!

My brother's new toy

My brother got a new toy. He and my son had fun with it. My son would chase it but the minute Uncle Bubba stopped or turned the Hummer toward him, Squirt would take off running.

My brother hates to have his picture taken so I snuck a few.

This isn't a very good picture but I loved their expressions. Squirt looks a lot like Uncle Bubba... don't ya think?

Too much?

Is this too much post processing??

Top is post and bottom is straigh out of camera.

Same here.

My weekend is over. I had an extra day.. sort of. I did get called in for a bit. I still didn't get done everything I needed to around the house. Too bad I can't find a volunteer house keeper!

I did it

I successfully avoided cleaning house again today! I discovered I've lost my spare battery and charger so I went to Tulsa with my parents to buy a new battery charger and wound up buying a new camera bag so that nothing will fall out again. I have much more room now and don't have to pack everything just so to get the bag to close.

Because my parents drove we made a few stops I wouldn't have made but I didn't mind. They stopped to get cattle vacinations, it is spring time and time to do annual vacinations. While they were inside my son and I sat in the truck. I thought he was going finish his nap, but didn't.
I have felt that my "eyes" have been soft. I'm trying to improve. My prescription glasses are off slightly and I'm still waiting on contacts. Wonder if that has anything to do with my problem?

He's definately mine.... never wants to keep his shoes and socks off. After taking a picture of his face he wanted me to take a picture of his toes.

And to pass the rest of the time while waiting on mom and dad I caught up on reading other blogs... GREAT work guys!!!!

I heart STRAWBERRIES!

I love strawberries. I remember as a little girl my great papa had a HUGE garden and large portion of that garden was strawberries. I think I ate more than landed in my bucket when I helped pick them. I can and have eaten a half a flat in a day.

I bought some today. It's still a tad early in the season and I've had much better, but they weren't bad.

I found this one amoung the batch and before I cut it up and put sugar on it I used the natural light of the kitchen window to photograph it.

On a side note, I'm so stinking mad at myself. I looked for my brand new spare battery and charger this evening and can't find either. I'm pretty sure it got left behind at the state basketball tournament last weekend. I've torn apart my van. Cleaned out the camera bag and looked all over the house. GRRRR. I spent my spare money this week on roses and plants so I'll have to pull out of my savings and head to Tulsa first thing in the moring and pray that a charger isn't very expensive and that they have one in stock.

Running out of gas

Seems like I've been running out of energy lately. I go go go so much sometimes. The other night I litteraly was running out of gas. I RARELY let my gauge get below 1/4-1/8. Too many times as a kid running out of gas with dad I suppose. I pulled within two houses from mine and heard a "ding." I passeup the house to head straight for the gas station.

Warmer weather

It's been warmer here lately though still dry. We're supposed to get rain this weekend. I hope to make it to the zoo on Saturday if it doesn't rain. I'm going to clean my house and plant some flowers tomorrow. But first I'm sleeping in. I deserve it!!!! Shhh don't tell Squirt he will wake me up early! He does really well unless I WANT and CAN sleep in.

I took this one at the park. It wasn't the angle or the image I wanted but I was chasing the 2 1/2 year old Squirt, full of energy! I think if I COULD have gotten slightly more to the left and just a hair lower and changed my apeture I would have had the image I wanted. I have to stop and think.... the higher the apeture the smaller the opening, the smaller the number the large the opening. So which is the shorter depth of field?

Templates

I'm cheap. While I'd love to purchase templates for a memory board and/or trader cards. I know I can do this. I may not be as fancy as some of those out there, and I'm still really rusty with photoshop (note to self... look at getting a photoshop class).

I also need to upgrade to CS, gotta make more money for that though.

So I have soccer and baseball still need CC for anyone that has the time to check it out.

The background is clipart. I'm thinking if we get to do soccer to take a pic of the team warming up. A wide angle shot to put as the background.

So while this isn't a 365 photo I took, it is something I'm working on.

One more collage

This was ordered but of the many pictures I took of the player, I had to choose. Hope the mom is happy with it.

Collage work

I worked this up to sell of my website giving parents the option to change the photos out for their child. What do you think?

One more post to catch up

I'm almost through with Monday! Three more days!!! Looks like maybe even a four day weekend :)

Took these yesterday. I wish I wouldn't have been so lazy and gotten out the tripod. My son was ready for the park. I'm going to try a few more another day. I can't wait for my roses to start blooming and I think I'm going to plant gladiolas this weekend.

They are the Champions!!! (Saturday)

Three days, three wins and the gold ball!!!!!

Warming up before the BIG game! I think might use this in a couple of collages.

More from the fanatic green cheering section.

The number 3 ranked team lost to the number 1 ranked team. The Championship team only lost two all season, both to bigger schools in a larger class. One loss was at the second meeting, they beat the big school the first go round.

Emotions were wild and it was so fun capturing them. I'm happy for them. Congratulations GO WARRIORS!

Some celebrated all the way home!

Many many more pics on www.SnapShotMoms.com

Semi's Friday

The semi finals were Friday night. The girls had a closer game than what they were used to and encountered foul trouble but still pulled a strong victory. I would have really LOVED the second shot had the other guy's flashes not blown out my highlights. It doesn't look AS bad in black and white but I was still a bit disappointed.

After this game I went downtown to Toby Keith's Bar and Grill and came very close to trying to attend a Big 12 Championship game. I was only a few blocks from the arena.

From Thursday

I spent the weekend attending the girls state playoff basketball games. I had a good time. I'm still tired but had a good time.

These kids cracked me up with all their green garb! They sent "postive vibes" for every free throw.

These lady's beat a private school in opening rounds of playoffs.

Weekend for ME

Rattlesnake and ice cold Bud Light at Toby Keith's Bar and Grill.

Bottoms Up!!! Dang that was good, had two beer and the shot on Friday night.

Ok it was a working weekend but a weekend away none the less. I drove two hours Friday evening to watch a basketball game and turn around and drive two hours back. I got home at 2 a.m. Friday, after picking up my son. My so let me sleep till 9. We did breakfast and lounged. I took a shower, packed and dropped him off by 130. I was on the road again. I made a stop to buy some clothes, spent too much money but was off to watch more basketball. My team won so they were to play on Saturday.

I was hungry and had some time to waste so I went to Toby Keith's Bar and Grill. It was a good burger and watched the OSU game on the screens. I was super close (1 mile) from the arena they were playing at. I had seriously considered walking to find out what the scalpers wanted for tickets. If only I was a rich single mom I coulda watched my Cowboys live! Anyway, I don't drink often and it's probably been since the first of the year or a bit longer since I've had a drink. The rattlesnake and Bud Light was really good with the burger. I took the pics with my Iphone so they aren't the best of quality. I stayed the night with a cousin and woke to find wifi and breakfast. Found breakfast, wifi was a bit tricky. Got picks emailed to the daily started uploading to my website but that got cut short with the need to get back to the Big House for the championship game. They won and are State Champions. I'll be posting more when I get sleep!!!! I'm not bouncing back as well as I used to!

Actions

Playing with actions and trying to think creatively to begin a big collage order. The creative juices just aren't flowing today. The actions came from Pioneer Woman. I really like her website.

I know I'm PMS'in but I'm sick of men that can't do what they are supposed to. My mom is still down and I'm desperately trying to be a single mom keeping two houses with a 2 year old that causes messes faster than I can clean up. Which is ok except I also have two grown men that aren't helping either. My brother won't even help with laundry. At least my dad is attempting this by washing and drying, though it appears he's doing this much only when he runs out of underwear.

I'm leaving this weekend before I go insane. I've decided! Unless the weather gets too bad to travel I'm headed to OKC tomorrow evening to watch first round of high school basketball state playoffs. I'll go regardless of the weather on Friday and stay Friday night to watch more games on Saturday. I'm leaving my son with my dad. I know I'm desperate!

Papa

My papa collapsed Christmas Day, 2007 from an aneurysm that caused a heart attack. He was "piddling" in the garage alone after a big meal. No one knows for sure how long he was down before someone found him. He was taken by ambulance to a local hosptial and later life flighted to a bigger hospital where he had an operation a few days later to relieve the pressure of the aneurysm. He stayed in the hospital till nearly March, 2008. He's had a long road of recovery. My grandmother has had it just as hard. There's been some really bad nights and days for them. They've recently switched doctors and meds for parkinsons. He's been doing so much better. They've ordered a motorized wheel chair for his bad days, which thankfully are fewer recently. They've also installed a ramp and made necessary adjustments to their house. The closed the pool.

I think they've been hit hardest by selling their boat and fifth wheel. They traveled and fished a lot. There were some summers they were gone more than they were home. I know they miss that terribly.

I'm thankful for every day I have with Papa, even if there have been days I'm not sure MY Papa was even behind the cloudy sad eyes.

Be blessed to have the loved ones in your life!

The photos are very recent ones of Papa and it actually reminds me of MY Papa! He was bossin' everyone on how the fence around the pool should be taken down. :)

Sad Sunday

It was a sad Sunday around my place. After more than 25 years of having someplace to swim whenever I wanted, it will be no more. My grandparents have decided to fill in their inground pool. I can't blame them. It would cost a lot to fix it up... resurfacing, fixing cracks, re-lining it etc etc. Not to mention the cost of maintaining it for the summer. My grandfather isn't as strong as he used to be either.

Sunday my family helped tear down the fence that surrounded the pool so that they could fill it in this week sometime.

We've had a lot of good summers laughing and playing and enjoying the summer sun. I've had lots of sunburns and new freckles added spending time jumping in and climbing out of the pool. I wish my son could have those memories too. Now I have to convince my parents to put one in! :(

Supper

This place is one of those really good, serve anything fried, all kinds of ice cream drive up and eat in your car or take home kinda place. You are definately "Pig N Out." With mom still off her feet and only a little time after chores and before bed, we all pitched in on super. I called our usual in but still had a few minutes to wait while our food cooked. These didn' turn out like I wanted. You really can't see the pig in overalls on the sign at the top. If I slowed the shutter down the lights would blow out in the picture. Speeding up the shutter didn't get enough of the darker parts. Night shots are hard for me anyway. Still have lots of room to learn and grow.

Don't forget to "Spring Forward!"

From freezing to sweating in a week

Last week it was snowing! Yesterday I was in shorts in 80 degree weather planting roses.

It's March in Oklahoma!!! If the roses I planted yesterday survive I'm one bush shy from having a dozen in my front yard. I imagine there will be more than a dozen by the beginning of summer. I LOVE roses! I can't have any in the backyard though because there isn't enough sun back there. So I'm stuck trying to get them all in the front yard. Guess it's a good thing I have mow my own yard. I don't have to listen to anyone else cuss me for having so many things to mow around.

The weeds are coming up, so spring is here. The dandelions are popping up everywhere, I think I read somewhere they are edible??

My son likes to pick flowers for his momma and his grandma! We're supposed to get storms tonight. I hope we do I didn't realize how dry we were till I had to dig holes yesterday.

Upon CC from several I redid the collage to try and make it more balanced..... is this better? Someone commened the lighting and background colors. Thank you. This is a challenge for me. I really like backlit shots but have trouble getting them myself. I had several more than the flare of sunset was too much. Having an "almost three" year old who didn't really want his pictue taken that evening was also a challenge. I have several "I'm mad at you momma" experssions captured.

Trusty

My brother's trusty he-man tow rope. It's really big around and is said to pull anything out of any kind of stuck lol. It has pulled out the tractor a time or two so it does work.

Afterward however, both vehicles come out pretty dirty..... and this is actually cleaner than usual!