shopping.....

these are just a few i got inside an antique store, i am surprised they came out because i was hand holding at a very low shutter speed. they are kind of yellow because i did not set a CWB, but i think the yellow kind of lends itself to the mood of the picture.

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the farm....again:)

i posted the first shot of T because i was so surprised i got such a great exposure in the conditions. it was midday with harsh sunlight, you can see the shadow from the tree i was sitting under. i tried VERY hard to study the scene and get a good exposure and i paid off to be patient. all i did when editing was sponge the sky SLIGHTLY to make it more blue. if i can start to get my exposures like this the fist time more consistently, i will be SO happy!

the others are of the side of the neatest, deer camp/shack/completely useless, critter collecting, house on the farm. it sits under a huge oak tree and makes for a great background for pictures. every time my adoptive mother(my SIL mom) talks about it i beg her to never tear it down because it is SO cool and the BEST color! i wish i could move it to my back yard!

the first window shot is SOOC and i went crazy with the next two.

downtown Bastrop.....

i am normally to nervous with my camera to get it out in public like this to take these kinds of pictures, but last weekend i through caution to the wind and had a good time taking these.

i did edit these a lot, it was fun. but for the record, they did start out as good exposures and i did a little cropping. i upped contrast to exaggerate the colors, i dodged and burned(again to exaggerate the colors) and i clones out some unsightly stickers/signs on the doors. now that i look at it on here i should have straightened the red door. unfortunately when i uploaded them her, blogger sucked all the color from them(okay, so maybe i over sharpened which can do that also!).

i try really hard to keep an image as real and honest as possible when they are of people, but with fun landscape/urban shots it was fun to edit like this!

i could stay in that little town for hours taking pictures, these are just a handful of opportunities i saw, but with two kids in tow and shopping with other people, me taking pictures was not that important.

K-man

i haven't really talked much about K lately, (well, blogged at all) so hear goes.

He is so serious, like an old man or something that can't control his emotions. if he gets over emotional, in trouble or mad he hides his face in his hands or runs and hides in his room. i try to get him to talk to me, but already he is like any other typical man and clams up silent. Sorry to his future wife, i am trying:)

on the other hand, he is so amusing right now. he will get out his little piano or guitar and ask mommy to sing while he beats one of them into submission.

he is getting famous for his dramatic, "WAIT, WAIT just a minute." his hand up in the air like it is SO important! and his "one more minute, momma!"

the other day he was actually letting me take pictures of him outside and right in the middle he stops and says, "wait, wait momma"(with his hand up in the air), goes in the house and promptly returns with my camera flash and lens cover. how cute is that!

and the sweetest thing in the whole world, which makes every terrible two incident a wash is what he said this weekend. god really knew what he was doing when he made two year old's, they are horrible one minute, then SO absolutely lovable the next. it was time for him to go to sleep at my S/B-I-L's house, but was not cooperating. i told S NOT to go in there and put him to sleep, just tell K to go to sleep. S comes back to me and says, "you have to go in there." i said "um, no. Why?"

S says "because K said he wanted you and i asked him why and K says, my love her."

how do i say no to that? my heart melted away everything right then.

( i know that may have been a little confusing to read, and something may have been lost in translation, but it made me almost cry.)

then next morning K leaned over to me when he woke up and gave me a kiss on the check to wake me up. who knew a 2.5 year old could be so sweet, lovable and kindhearted? i just can't say enough how much i love that kid.

i don't really think i need to explain the first picture, but the second one is when he brought me my lens cap and flash. the tree above his head is the one we lost the same night i was taking these pictures.

monster boy.....

my little monster is getting so big and really starting to come into his personality. he is the silliest thing, i really thought K was, but T is gonna give him a run for his money. he has the funniest facial expressions and makes the strangest noises when he is talking. he just babbles and babbles all day to us, his toys, at nothing!
but he is also still our monster, he is mean. he pinches, bites and forget about leaving your hair down. he will be so sweet(halo and all) then sneak in a hair tug, for the most part it is no bother, but the biting is going to be a problem. i hope it is not MY kid kicked out of school one day for being the one that bites, how embarrassing!
its not going to be long before he is walking and tormenting K, i just can't wait!

enjoying this post Ike weather.....

we had to finally get out in the beautiful weather yesterday, i think the boys were ready to explode being couped up for so long. we brought them up to the neighborhood park to let them work out some of their energy.

this picture of the boys is from a few weeks ago, T is right o K's heels and wants to run and play with him bad!

a little during and after Ike.....

the first few pictures are out our front door early Saturday morning.
the 3 & 4th pictures are a few around town, i did not have my camera for some of the bad stuff we saw driving around, i felt to guilty taking pictures of peoples bad fortune(i guess i can call it that).
the last picture is the fruitless pear tree we lost in our back yard. i am not sure how we got so lucky that if fell perfectly between the fence and the house. we did have some small fence damage in other spots, but were very fortunate that was all.
i hope that anyone that reads this and was in the path of Ike was also fortunate enough to have made it out safely and without much destruction.

anticipating Ike.....

i have to admit two things, i was secretly looking forward to the storm, minus any destruction and death of course, and i really didn't think it was gonna be that bad around our area. i like the adrenaline that comes along with the fear of something i am to small to have any control over. and scary it was, i went to bed Friday night thinking we might get a little rain and that would be all. boy was i wrong, that had to be the scariest thing in the world, and we were on the clean 'calm' side of the Storm. i can't imagine what it would have been like if it would have gotten as big as the meteorologists had originally predicted and if we would have been in the path or on the dirty side.
there is horrible destruction and SO many people are with out so many things my heart breaks. we were very, very blessed to be safe, have electricity, food and water, i hope and pray that soon everyone that was in the wake of Ike will be safe and back to normal as soon as possible.

the first picture is of all the kiddos on the street, Friday before the storm.
S, at the last minute boarding up our window so we would feel secure while sleep, the best preparation we did!
the sunset before the storm.

sleep tight.....

from day one K has fought his sleep, now 2.5 years later it is no different. he fights nap time, but not a bad as at night. part of his bed time problem is that his dad is a softy and still puts him to sleep.
we spent most of the weekend at my parents house while S and my dad could finish up deer stands, yes deer season is around the corner, whoo-hoo!
i was desperate for K to go to sleep on Saturday afternoon, he was being such a butt and really need a nap bad, so i went with him to take a nap. all he wanted to do was jump, flip, turn, talk, touch and everything else besides be still. i was getting beyond irritated so i left him telling him NOT to get out of the bed, he did not have to go to sleep, but he had to lay there for a little while.
this is how i found him about ten minutes later, passed out.

when i got him out of bed about 2 hours later, he did not exactly listen to me and got in the toys my parents has for the grand kids and fell asleep with their marbles all in the bed, he must have been VERY tired!

saturday morning special.....

i guess this doesn't need a whole lot of explanation! the boy loves dog food!

Cars momma, please.....

Several months back, when it was time to buy K new shoes, we all went to famous footwear to look for some cool tennis shoes. You know, some chuck taylors or vans. i personally prefer shoes (and clothes for that matter) without characters, screen printing and such.
as you can tell by the well worn cars shoes in the picture i lost that battle the day we went to the shoes store with Meme.
when we got back to K sizes, he saw those shoes and made a bee line for them. i nicely and quietly told Meme, absolutely not!!! i figure i would just humor him and let him play with them , he was for goodness sakes barley 2, how could he really know what he wants???? well, he put those puppies on, and that was where they were gonna stay. he ran around that store looking for every mirror he could find. When he found one, he would stop, very dramatically raise his foot up in the air and admire his new shoes.
They are finally worn out and retired, although he still asked to wear his car shoes. i seriously dread the day he sees the spiderman light up shoes, i might have to hurl a little.

LLU.....

i attended a class tonight through Leisure Learning about my external flash. it was great to get out, to be in a room of learning photographers, but the class itself was a tad bit disappointing. the teacher was great, well spoken and thorough, overall a good teacher. the class itself was just to basic and i need more. i was really hoping to learn how to creatively use my flash so it doesn't look like i am using it and to learn fun ways to us it in low light.
there is, however an intermediate class that will cover low light situations next week. i am hoping to have a chance to take that also. i am not disappointed that i took the class, because i am sure after i get some sleep tonight, i will wake up and realize i did lean more that i think i did!

a fleeting moment of relief.....

i'm sure most of you know the A/C went out in my car last week, major bummer, because it is freaking HOT!
And i'm sure that most of you who read this know that it is not a strange occurrence for it to be in the high 80's before 8 0'clock in the morning with enormously high humidity in Houston. Now, i am no meteorologist, but even i know that no A/C+high heat/ humidity=butt crack sweat, not nice first thing in the morning!
So much to my surprise, when i walked out my door this morning, prepared to be hot and wind blown when i got to work, it was AMAZING outside! Such a beautiful number showed up on my thermometer, 74 degrees! it was so refreshing to ride to work with my windows down out of pleasure, so i could feel it, and believe it. perfect, clear blue sky and it even smelled good, i know that is weird, but i love the way fall smells.
I am not getting my hopes up by any means that it will still be nice when i get up in the morning, but it does give me a fleeting moment of relief and hope that fall is in fact just around the corner. So, i will take what i can get for now, but it makes my heart happy when i know fall is getting near. i love everything this time of year means, good weather, family and tradition!

just playing.....

the kids have been asleep for an hour(amazing!), the dishes are washed, the floors swept, laundry going, yada-yada. now i will relax.