I'm SOOOOOOO Excited!!

Why you ask?????

Well, because my camera broke. The camera that I love.... I mean truly LOVE.... and that I hardly go anywhere without. Ca-put. And the camera doctor says it's not really worth the cost to fix it. So exactly why would that make me so excited? Well, in the beginning it didn't. And I've actually survived about 6 weeks now with only a crappy point and shoot. Sorry, for all of you out there with point and shoots, but really, once you've gone DSLR, you tend to become a little camera-snobby and you just can't go back.

So after many weeks of contemplating biting the BIG bullet.... buying a new DSLR..... new lenses..... new high-speed mega gigabyte SDHC cards to store all the mind-boggling amounts of digital info from that new DSLR....... Well, I finally did it.

And it was no small task. I've spent far too many hours researching.... talking to the experts..... reading every internet review comparing every new DSLR...... pouring over every issue of my PCPhoto magazine.... all in an effort to make the best decision in buying my new pride and joy. It's crazy expensive (well, to me, the cheap-skate anyway), and I don't want to make a mistake. I'll have this little baby for a long, long time.

So what did I decide? Well, it was reeeeeally a close call. I came within a breath of buying a Nikon D5000, but in the end, Canon's brand new EOS Rebel T1i 500D won my heart. Listen to this....... 15.1 megapixels, 3.0" 920,000 dot high-resolution screen, full HD video capture at 1920x1080 resolution, shoots 3.5 frames per second.... and on and on...... I'm so excited. It's ordered and in transit right now. And to make my life even better, I decided to dramatically upgrade my telephoto lens to the Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM. It's supposed to be fantastic. I can hardly wait to start snapping those pictures! Here are a few picture of the camera and lens and then some shots I uploaded taken with this same camera. I'm a lucky girl.... this may be my Christmas, anniversary and birthday presents for the next year but that's just fine with me!



You can click on each of these photos to get a high-resolution, larger view to really see the image quality



So now I can even take pictures of the moon! Well, maybe I'll just stick with pictures of the kids, but it's amazing what this little camera can do....... can't wait!!

Ohhhhhh, how I love Change!

Well, what do you think about the new and improved blog design??????????

I Love It!!!

Everytime I look at it, it makes me think of the R.E.M. song "Shiny, Happy People." And you know, that's fitting. Life has been pretty wonderful lately.... and I have a lot to be happy about. So I'm glad that that happiness is now reflected in my blog that I've grown to love so much.

However, that is NOT to say it wasn't a crazy amount of work.... I figure I have 40 hours or so in designing it now and I'm only about 75% done.... more tweaks and changes to come. It's just my nature (or maybe my sick compulsion).... I must do and re-do and do and re-do, no matter how much sleep I've lost, til I'm satisfied that I've done my best. That's how I learn -- trial and error..... it's the best way for me. And my, my.... how much I've been learning lately!

So now to the post...... my kids had their elementary school fundraiser yesterday. This year instead of the typical wrapping paper sales, restaurant nites, and of course, our annual Spring Fling fundraiser, the school opted to let a group from outside the school come in and handle it all for us. The Fun Run crew were like former college cheerleaders, getting the kids pumped up to get pledges for a 35 lap run held yesterday. The kids would call friends and family, ask for donations for each lap, and the school would rake in all the dough.

It was actually a GREAT concept.... so much fun for the kids.... the Fun Run Crew taught character building lessons, psyched the kids up every day to raise more & more money, it involved lots of exercise and parents came to cheer the kids on, too. What could be better for our children? And I have to say, as a former fund-raising psycho mom who would work tirelessly for months to raise each and every little dollar..... well, this is absolutely BRILLIANT!! The Fun Run Crew does the work and we all benefit.... with no countless hours of volunteer work. I hope it was a success economically for the school, but I KNOW it was a hit for all the parents and their kids. Great job Ogletree!!! Here's a slideshow from the race.......

Feeling Stupid? Here's some company.....

They get better as you read down.........



Have you ever said something and then later thought.... "Gosh, that sure sounded stupid!" If so, you'll surely appreciate this email I received and thought it would be fun to share. So next time you feel stupid, just dig this up and read it again......... you'll begin to think you're a genius.



(On September 17, 1994, Alabama's Heather Whitestone was selected as Miss America 1995.)
Question: If you could live forever, would you and why?
Answer: 'I would not live forever, because we should not live forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever,' -- Miss Alabama in the 1994 Miss USA contest .





'Whenever I watch TV and see those poor starving kids all over the world, I can't help but cry I mean I'd love to be skinny like that, but not with all those flies and death and stuff.' --Mariah Carey









'Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life.' -- Brooke Shields, during an interview to become spokesperson for federal anti-smoking campaign.











'I've never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body.' -- Winston Bennett, University of Kentucky basketball forward.








'Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.' --Mayor Marion Barry, Washington , DC








'That lowdown scoundrel deserves to be kicked to death by a jackass, and I'm just the one to do it.'--A congressional candidate in Texas





'Half this game is ninety percent mental.' --Philadelphia Phillies manager, Danny Ozark






'It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it.' --Al Gore, Vice President







'I love California . I practically grew up in Phoenix ' -- Dan Quayle while campaigning








'We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?' --Lee Iacocca










'The word 'genius' isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.' --Joe Theisman, NFL football quarterback & sports analyst.








'We don't necessarily discriminate. We simply exclude certain types of people.' -- Colonel Gerald Wellman, ROTC Instrutor.







'Your food stamps will be stopped effective March 1992 because we received notice that you passed away. May God bless you. You may reapply if there is a change in your circumstances.'--Department of Social Services, Greenville , South Carolina




'Traditionally, most of Australia 's imports come from overseas.' --Keppel Enderbery







'If somebody has a bad heart, they can plug this jack in at night as they go to bed and it will monitor their heart throughout the night. And the next morning, when they wake up dead, there'll be a record.' --Mark S. Fowler, FCC Chairman

Feeling smarter yet?

First Day of School

I soooooo wasn't ready for the first day of school this year. Summer's been really busy.... camps, friends, vacations.... it just seemed like we never slowed down. But I will say, the day the girls actually did both go to school, I was pretty pumped. I kept feeling guilty that we hadn't done some of the things I wanted to do together.... I felt like they really didn't get much of a break.... but THAT day, actually the 2nd day of school (I'll tell you about that one in a minute),

Woo-Hooooo! Mom's

FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST!

I'm kidding of course, and I still had Jacob with me, but it was a nice little change of pace..... made even better that they both came home excited about their classes and their teachers. Macy got the teacher that every kid around here is praying special prayers to get.... Mrs. DeAnne (as she's known around these parts... she's a neighbor), although at school she's Mrs. Deweese. And Madison got the perfect teacher for her personality as well. That makes a mama REALLY happy. They're both transitioning well into 3rd and 5th grade.... it really couldn't be any better.

Now about that 2ND day of school....

at 9:00pm, the night before school started.... my child, Macy (WHO IS NEVER SICK!) came down the stairs with a bad stomach ache and said, "Mom, I just threw up everywhere"......... Murphy's Law....... Luckily, she was fine.... had a tummy ache the next day, but then was ready on Tuesday to go to her new class. Can't even tell you the last time that child was sick!!

So now that they're back in school, I'm starting to do a few of the things I've been wanting to do...... clean out some drawers and closets, organize, CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN!! But mostly I've been researching some new Photoshop software and diving HEADFIRST and FULL-FORCE into learning even more of its complexities. Anyone who does it will tell you.... BEWARE.... it's highly addictive. But I love it.... there's almost no end to the possiblities whether you're digitally scrapbooking or adding tweaks and special effects to photography. The more you learn, the more it sucks you in like a vacuum.... and the more you realize how much more you can learn. Exciting stuff for me....... love, love, love it! (Am I a nerd????)

So that's what brings me to this little entry.... my first scrapbook pages of hopefully many, many more to come of the kids on their first day of school..... What do you think?



I plan to make books for each of the kids for Christmas..... it'll be like "A Year in the Life of Madison"..... Can't wait to get started...... and WATCH OUT..... I've got a camera in my hand just about everywhere these days!!

Family Beach Shots

I took these pictures a few weeks ago when we were at the beach, but I didn't get around to posting them until now. I usually always try to take some family photos while we're there, but mainly of just the kids. Two years ago I got smart and hired a professional to take some of all of us, but this time I thought I could swing it on my own.

Whoops! Not so smart.... I should have hired the girl.

The kids needed a coach to whip them in shape AND a photographer..... I wasn't doing such a great job of multi-tasking. Not to mention my mad-dashes back to the family after setting the 10 second timer on the camera for the pictures of all of us together! I literally had maybe a whole second before the camera clicked. Me acting like a fool running through the sand definitely made the kids laugh though. Here are a few of the 200..... yes, 200 I took. The blog only lets you view photos at 72dpi.... You can click on each picture to see it with a higher resolution if you'd like...

Sisters

One of my favorites -- Macy & Jacob with a little "antique beach-wash" in Photoshop added

Another favorite

And the walk-to-the-ocean shot

Playing with daddy

Silly Daddy

The family shots were almost impossible.....
hence the need to HIRE a photographer!
5 people all smiling at the same time with wind and sun and
not to mention me running like a maniac to get in the right position in 10 seconds

This one's a bit fuzzy.... Jonathan took it a little too far away

Me and my babies

Maddie

Little May-May

And one of my favorites

Madison was definitely the most cooperative.... she always had a smile on

Look everybody! Mom wants me to laugh so Macy pulled her dress up
to show me her underwear.....
Well, what can I say? Desperate times call for desperate measures.

My favorite of the girls

Me & JP

The best of the three of them

And another...

My #1 favorite picture

Is this the way out of here??

Are we done yet, mom? I think if you take ONE MORE, I'm gonna go postal!

Annie..... Uhhhh, I mean Holly...... Get Your Gun!

My friends Jack and Barclay have lately been through one of those moments in life we all dread..... Jack's dad has been ill for the last couple of months and he passed away last week. Our hearts go out to them both.... they were very close and he will be dearly missed by their family. As their friends, we have all wanted to do what we can, however small, to let them know how sorry we are and to support them through this really tough time. Last Friday was the visitation in Eufaula, so Holly, Julee and I took a little drive to Eufaula to see them. Driving into Eufaula is like something out of an old, Southern novel.... tree-lined streets with antebellum homes everywhere. It's the sort of town you don't think exists anymore until you see it for yourself.

So there we were..... just spotting the beautiful, white mansion Jack grew up in and Holly and I were riding in the front of the car. We heard Julee, sitting in the back, saying something about a man trying to tell us something. First Holly turned down the radio and then we too heard a man outside the car saying something, but we couldn't understand just what. That's when we turned around to look.

That was no ordinary man from Eufaula..... it was a STATE TROOPER..... on his intercom...... (did you get that? I-N-T-E-R-C-O-M!!)..... TALKING TO US! Holly rolled her window down and said, "WHAT????" He replied (and this time we heard him loud & clear)....

"Ma'am, there's a pistol on your bumper. Pull over."

Say what???? A pistol???

Needless to say we were all freaking a little..... praying it's some kind of toy.... wondering why in the world this man would pull us over for having a toy gun on the bumper. Holly gets out and we hear her say, "Is it real??" To which the officer replies, "It sure looks real."

Yes, it does!! No wonder he pulled us over.... and did I mention EVERYONE in town was going to the visitation.... the streets were bumper to bumper with cars while this man is patiently, over & over again telling us there's a pistol on our car.

You be the judge.... Julee snapped this little picture after with her cell phone....


YIKES!!! And the most amazing part is that it's plastic and somehow stayed on Holly's bumper all the way from Auburn!

At least it was good to be able to tell Barclay a funny story to try to lift her spirits a little....
and even funnier that everyone we told later said, "Ahhhhh.... Walton!! Had to be!"
Holly, you're in for it with that little one.