February 29

One of the "people" I interact with constantly is our dog, Jet. We got her 1 1/2 years ago and I cannot imagine our life without her! She follows me all around the house ALL THE TIME!! When I go to bed at night, she lays by my side of the bed. When I wake in the morning, she is right there and follows me to the kitchen to be fed. If I'm at the computer, she is laying at my feet. When I'm on the treadmill, she sits next to me until I'm done. Well - you get the picture! She's a terrific addition to our family. And like the rest of us, she's a little sick of winter - you can tell she is just waiting to be outside running around the yard and taking long walks. Soon, Jet - very soon!

February 27

Love the shadow pictures I see other photographers do. This doesn't really have the same feel with the dirty snow in the driveway! :) I rarely get pictures of Abby and Kate, so I took advantage of some warmer weather today after school to get them together!

February 26 and 27

While walking down the street in St. Paul last week, I noticed Kate and Meg holding hands. These two tend to get on each others' nerves, so moments like these are pretty sweet. It's just a good reminder that they do care about (and like!) each other!

The next two I added because I'm pretty excited that I finally learned how to add texture (Yay for me!). I know, I know - I'm a little behind the trend, but I'm glad I finally made the time to figure it out! The last photo has the Photoblast Antique Color added as well.

February 23,24, and 25

Another weekend of gymnastics. Here are photos to get caught up! One of Kate in the hotel, one of Meg on the bars (she had a terrific meet!) . The third is my "on theme" photo for this week. It is a picture of Meg and her best friend, Lexi. These two get along SO well - it's really fun to watch them. It's also been fun this year as they get to compete together at gymnastics. Although this isn't a great picture, it does show how the two of them are together - always checking things out together and having their own private little conversations about things around them.

February 22

Meg's 3rd grade class performed a "Living Museum" today at school. Each student had to pick a famous person in history, research that person, and write (plus memorize!) a paragraph about that person. During their performance today, the students dressed like their famous person and they all recited their paragraphs. Meg was "Princess Diana" - she did a terrific job and remembered her part perfectly!

February 21

Shapes from around my office! Our school mascot is the Knight - so we have a few of these guys around the building. Thought all the different shapes were fun! The lighting, however, was not fun. Lots of those flourescent school lights -yuck!

50 mm lens (again!), ISO 400, Manual mode, f2.8, ss 1/20-1/80

February 20

First of all, I have to say a great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my best friend, Amy. She has been my best friend since junior high - and I'm so lucky to have her in my life. I hope you have a great birthday!

The shape photo was a last minute shot this evening during dinner. I really wanted to do outdoor shots but after work it was 17 degrees BELOW ZERO!!! And that was before the wind starting blowing. Seriously - we have to be crazy to live here!
Photos shot with 50mm lens, ISO 400, Av mode, f2.2-3.2

February 19

I love working in a high school. I am so lucky to have my job! The school I work in is the older of the two high schools in Grand Forks. The building is very traditional in it's structure. There is some beautiful architecture throughout the building. These photos are of a very common "shape" around a high school!

All photos shot with 50mm lens. ISO was bumped up to 800 (no natural light in this hallway) and f/5.0. Used Christy's Simply BW conversion.

February 18

The new weekly theme for POTD is "Shapes". I'm probably stretching it with these photos, but it amazing all the different lines and shapes that you can find in a flower shop! Here are a few more from my adventures with Angela from yesterday!

Top photo - ISO 200, Manual mode, ss 1/1600 sec, f1.8 - 50mm lens

Second photos - ISO 200, Manual mode, ss 1/320 sec, f3.2 - 50 mm lens

February 17

Today I met a fellow POTDer (who is also, amazingly, from Grand Forks!) to take some pictures. We met at a local floral shop. It was so wonderful to see green! With all the snow around here, it seems like ages since I've seen the color green! There were also some plants in bloom in beautiful pinks, reds and yellows. There were fish, birds, cats - all sorts of animals to photograph! Here are a few from the first round of edits. It's especially nice to have a photography buddy who shares the passion to learn and develop as a photographer - thanks for a fun outing, Angela!

I used Ren's Black Frame on these (as well as previous posts!).

January 16

I LOVE this face!
(Ren's Gentle Boost added to photo)

February 15

You gotta love being a kid and trying to catch snowflakes on your tongue! Can you imagine the scene if grown-ups all walked around in a snowfall doing the same thing? Maybe we'd all be a little happier, huh?

February 14

What is a sign of true love? A Dad decorating Valentine's Day boxes for his girls for school.....moments like this melt my heart!

February 7-13 - Chicago Review

I spent a long weekend in Chicago with Brian, Abby and good friends this past weekend while our girls competed in a gymnastics meet on Navy Pier. We had a wonderful time with our friends and the girls did a terrific job at the meet! The most eventful part of the weekend was a long wait on the interstate in Wisconsin as we waited for the road to be cleared of about 22 inches of snow just south of Madison. I've never seen so many semi-trucks in my life! We saw Wicked, visited the Shedd Aquarium, Sears Tower and John Hancock Building as well as eating a lot of great food and doing some shopping on Michigan Avenue. The meet was a lot of fun. It is the largest meet in the nation with over 4000 gymnasts. One of the photos I'm sharing is of John Rothlisberger who gave an inspiration speech to the girls after their meet - very cool! Chicago is such a fun city - I hope we get to go back again soon!

February 5 and 6

Alright - now I should be caught up (is there really such a thing as "caught up"?)! Meg and I took advantage of the longer days and went to our local park after her piano lessons. This is actually a picnic table, but the snow was over the benches! Meg wanted to take more, but it is freezing cold again today and my hands couldn't move after a few shots!

February 2-4

Hi everyone! Sorry for my absence the last few days. I was not feeling well on Friday and then gone for the weekend. Here are photos for the past few days. The one of me was my "attempt" at aperature taking a photo in my rear view mirror. The middle photo is of my husband, Brian. I don't think he's made it into the POTD yet - can't you tell he's thrilled to have his photo taken? The last is a "lovely" photo of Abby digging in the pantry for food. She'll kill me when she sees that I posted that one!

Spent the weekend with dear friends and had a WONDERFUL time. It's always so refreshing and therapeutic to get away with other women/moms and laugh ourselves silly.

It was snowy here today so I'm hoping to get some fun outdoor shots tomorrow in clean snow!