March 7

After being very frustrated with the strange world of Lightroom, I decided today to download the free trial of PSE6. I'm happy to report that I'm much happier tonight and have hope for the future (a little dramatic, but I really am relieved that life will go on after PSE5!).

These are brownies that I made for my "birthday treats" for work. I got the recipe from my best friend, Amy, and they were a HUGE hit! They are very simple. Just use a brownie mix for a 9x13 pan. Make as directed and pour half on bottom of pan. Then layer 3 Symphony bars (the big ones) across the pan and pour the remaining batter on top. Bake according to the package directions. So easy and SO YUMMY!

March 6

So yesterday I went to download my weekend pictures and my photoshop is gone. Missing. Not there. Won't open. Can you say panic city? Fortunately, I had backed up my pictures just last week, but I cannot open them on my computer AT ALL!!! How frustrating! Tonight I downloaded a trial version of Lightroom. It's so different! I miss my actions and knowing what I'm doing. But I figured this was a good time to play with it while I try to work with Adobe and figure out what happened. These pictures aren't great. I took quick ones of Kate with an art project so that I new photos to play with for today's POTD. The top is the edited, second is SOOC.

March 5

Kaitlyn is Kate's best friend. She is the sister of Meg's best friend, Lexi, that I posted pictures of a few weeks ago. Kaitlyn's sisters and my girls all do gymnastics together and their family has become our very good friends. Between kindergarten, gymnastics and our weekends of travelling, these two spend ALOT of time together. And they are very bright, determined little girls. Watch out - they could probably take over the world if given enough time alone to plan how to do it! :)

March 1, 2, 3 and 4

Another weekend out of town so I'm posting a few photos to catch up! These are all pretty random. Just ones that I liked(and had time to edit!). The ones of Abby are from dinner on Saturday night. She has been begging to go to Oceanaire and since it was our last Minneapolis trip for a while, we decided to bring them. I'm not sure what Abby's faced are all about - she looks like she hates her meal. But, in fact, she really loved it. Why am I not surprised that she really loves seafood? That's very convenient when you live in North Dakota! :) The last two are my on theme "cropping" photos. I end cropping a lot for gymnastics because there is always so much going on in the background and people standing around.

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