CrazyBusy

May. 28, 2008

Wordless Wednesday: Listening for Frogs

We were on a walk last week and the frogs were really croaking! Josiah stopped to listen. And can I just say I love that child's lips?!

Color?

Or B&W?

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May. 21, 2008

Wordless Wednesday: Gertie Giggles?

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*I have to add here that today marks DAY TWO of Josiah's being completely free for the entire day! WOO-HOO!

Have you seen any of the Spy Kids movies? We actually own all 3, and we don't purchase "kid's" movies very often. They have to be pretty good to actually buy. They are really great family movies. No cussing, some crude humor, but not bad, and really promote family closeness. The only negative I can think of is when Alek, a couple of years ago, repeated a line from the movie in front of grandma. "Oh, shiiiiiiiiiiitake s." He thought it was funny and she was shocked! However, he didn't even know the word it's so similar to (I still don't think he does!)- so he didn't "get" it. He just thought it was a funny line from the movie. I explained that to her after he'd left the room. He hasn't repeated it since.

Anyway, this is one of the few photos I took of my other children at the beach on our Flat Stanley outing (that I mentioned in the "organize toys" post a while back). When I saw it, it reminded me of a scene from Spy Kids (can't remember which one!) of a flying Gertie Giggles and her twirling pigtails.

And I'll just throw this one in because I love the sun flares and back (or is it side?) lighting of Gracie as we were leaving.

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May. 14, 2008

Wordless Wednesday: Dandelions and Flowers

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Gabe blew his right at me.

Gracie's wasn't ripe.

My sweet boy bringing me freshly picked flowers.

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Apr. 30, 2008

Wordless Wednesday: Bubbles.

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Do you see a face in that first one!??! (not Gabe's)

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Apr. 23, 2008

Wordless Wednesday- Future Tennis Player?

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Apr. 2, 2008

(Not So) Wordless Wednesday: Sunset Walk

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Very last minute, we decided to head to the beach for a walk. On the drive over, the setting sun was amazing. It was quickly sinking behind the mountains and there was a thick blanket of gray clouds (or perhaps fog) headed our way so the race was on. I love taking pics at sunset. It didn't stay light very long but here are a couple favorites from tonight's walk.

And I just have to show the "tossing the toddler" pics in succession. One of them is the first photo above, but not cropped. These are SOOC (or, "straight out of camera"- no editing at all):

It felt so good to get out of the house!

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Feb. 12, 2008

Wordless Wednesday (a bit early): Calendar Entries For This Week

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Feb. 6, 2008

Wordless Wednesday: Early Signs Of Gravitational Effects

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(he was jumping)

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Jan. 30, 2008

Wordless Wednesday: Steven Tyler (Aerosmith)? Or Josiah? You Decide.

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Jan. 16, 2008

Not-So-Wordless Wednesday: Mumps, Anyone?

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UPDATE: I just got back from the doctor a little bit ago (and then had a nice, long chat with my cuz, Kim! Hey Kim!). Josiah DOES NOT have mumps after all, but an infected lymph node... either that or an infected parotid gland. I got two different diagnoses. He is on an antibiotic and we have to go back in tomorrow to make sure the swelling is going down. He was a little grumpy this morning but is acting just fine now. FOUR doctors looked at him today, which of course freaked me out a little and made me think they were going to tell me something horrible, like he had leukemia or something, so I was VERY thankful that it's just something that needs an antibiotic! Well, the first doctor was an intern or something, I think, so it was natural for the doctor she's following to come in and double check everything. But then they asked for a 3rd opinion from another physician. It was when they said they were going to step out of the room to discuss what they were going to do with him that I freaked out a little. They left the door open, and Josiah's regular ped, who I couldn't get in with today because everyone loves him, walked by, recognized us and popped in to say hi & see what's going on. He said it was perotitis and that he'd be fine after a round of augmentin. He asked which doctor saw him and headed in the opposite direction he was previously heading and went & talked to the her. When I got the script, she had crossed out her original script and had written augmentin instead. So it's either perotitis (infection/inflammation of the parotid (salivary) gland ) or lymphadenitis (I think is what they called it- an infection of the lymph nodes). So there's your update! A very Wordless Wednesday, eh?

This isn't going to be a pretty post, I can guarantee you that. I haven't verified this with his pediatrician yet, but I believe Josiah has a case of the MUMPS! He woke up with a sore mouth, slight fever, sick tummy and was pretty lethargic. However, after a short nap, he was back to his normal crazy self!

Remember the Blair Witch Project? Scary stuff, I tell ya. I couldn't sleep until 3 or 4 am the night DH & I watched that movie. And I was so mad at DH for falling asleep before me! How dare he! For some reason, this pic brought back memories of that movie.
See his swollen neck?

Now normally I don't go for this particular up-the-nose angle. However, I did warn you this wasn't going to be pretty. Do you see his swollen neck NOW?

No, his thumb could never be the cause of any recent illnesses. Not the germcicle, no way! How dare you insult his precious in such a manner.

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Jan. 9, 2008

Wordless Wednesday: Moms Wear Their Hearts On Their Sleeves...

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... and here's one reason I do:

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Dec. 5, 2007

Not-So-Wordless Wednesday: Merry Christmas Bokeh

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These pics are going to need a little splainin', I'm afraid.

First, what on earth is bokeh?! Pretty much the out of focus areas in a photo. Why would you want out of focus areas in a photo? I could do a whole tutorial on this, because bokeh is really cool. In portrait photography, you want good bokeh in the background. It makes the background look creamy or pleasantly blurred and really makes your subject pop. You get bokeh by shooting with apertures on the wider open side. Different lenses give different effects- in some it just looks creamy, sometimes, like the following pictures, you get spherical shaped bokeh.

I used my 85mm lens on these photos and did no Photoshopping except to resize, sharpen a bit & frame for the web. And if you want to know more about bokeh, just google the word and click on images and you'll get all sorts of good examples. I varied the ISO and shutter speeds a bit, but all were taken with an aperture of 1.8.

On with these weird pictures.

I have NO idea why this turned out like it did. I took a picture of our Christmas lights while inside, looking through the window of our front door. Our door has a fan shaped window on the upper part with sections of beveled glass. I purposely wanted the Christmas lights thrown out of focus but I can't explain why it looks like a grid or checkerboard looking pattern. Weird, huh?

I put my camera on manual focus because I wanted the lights to be as out of focus as possible. I'm pretty good at manual focus when I don't really need to focus on anything- just make it out of focus. Hee-hee! Now when I try to get a pic of one of my children in manual focus- HA! I much prefer auto.

Now I put the auto focus back on and focused on the lights.

Exciting. Huh. And not that this is much better, but it's the same string of lights on manual focus, out of focus.

More of the same pattern: lights in focus, lights out of focus.

Sorry, but I was desperate to take a picture of something. Anything. Hopefully we'll get some SNOW soon (that will stick longer than 24 hours) or I can at least get around to taking our Christmas pictures. Those will be more exciting, I promise. Hee-hee!

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Nov. 28, 2007

Wordless Wednesday

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And the not so wordless part. I told my DH that he is lucky that I'm not the pukey pregnant type. Cuz if I were, this walk he took us on would've done me in. It really STUNK on this little section of the walk.

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Oct. 24, 2007

Wordless Wednesday: Beauty and Brains: Huskies Have It All!

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Beauty and Brains: Huskies Have It All!

Now this part is not wordless, but I have to explain. There is a fenced-in, one acre dog park nearby that we go to a lot to socialize our pups. There is also a park for the children next to it, so usually one of us will take the dogs (usually Kenton) and the other (usually me) will take the children to the park. Although the children do like to watch the dogs play for a while first.

We took Annushka there about 4 days after we got her, and she was a little overwhelmed and just hung out near the fence- until a lady showed up with her gorgeous 2 year old female Siberian husky. You should've seen Annushka's reaction! She went from timid and coy to excited and friendly. She started walking towards the husky with her head low, ears back and tail wagging, so excited to see her, and started licking the other husky's mouth. The husky's owner went ga-ga over Annushka because she swore her dog looked exactly like her as a pup. I think Annushka thought the other husky was her mom. She did not react like that to any of the other dogs. She had nothing to do with any of the other dogs there but her. That's how I saw it- as her seeing what she thought was a familiar face in her still new environment. I felt kind of bad for her.

Kenton, however, thought differently. He called her a snob! (and only semi-jokingly, may I add) He said that he'd heard that huskies tend to gravitate to each other, and that's why, he said, they're snobs. As you can see, she wasn't very happy with that comment. This one's for you, Kenton.

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Oct. 17, 2007

Wordless Wednesday: A Promise

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(I wish I could've gotten a better shot than this- this was taken through the windshield as we were driving)

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About Me

Hi and welcome to my crazy busy world! I'm Alyssa, pronounced A-lee-sa. Hubby & I have been married for 15 years and we have 5 wonderful children and one on the way! Their ages are 11, 8, 7, 5 & 3, with the latest model due early July! Spend any amount of time here and I'm sure you'll quickly learn that I love photography! You'll find quite a mix of posts here- lots of photo blogging, some photography tips and tutorials, posts about home schooling and posts that will give you a glimpse to the goings-on in our lives. I hope you enjoy your visit! Thanks for stopping by!