Saturday, December 29, 2007

Photobucket Saturated Saturday

Saturday dawned. Mom is still in LA. Jamin and Josiah had to work. We’ve decided to celebrate Jared’s birthday tomorrow as it is the last day before the girls leave that the boys will not be working 12+ hour days.

The girls and I braved the crazed after-Christmas crowds in search of perfect birthday loot for Jared.

Mike and Dad took the younger boys to a local school to play with their new flying toys.



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Krista made manicotti for dinner. YUMM!

Mike told us at dinner that there was to be a historic football game on TV tonight. We have a small set that sometimes gets a local channel. We decided to see what the reception would be like. I suggested the big screen. No one seemed to think it would work well, or be worth the hassle, but they tried it. Jared snapped together the big screen (material found on ebay, frame built by Mike), Mike got out the projector and the antenna we use to get reception of any sort. He hooked the antenna into the VCR and we had wonderful reception on that one station – the station which happened to show the historic football game. If we didn’t always have to have an eye on the resale value of our home, we would do as Gilda’s husband did. We would mount a projector on one side of the room and find a way to hang the screen somewhere so that we didn’t have to prop it on chairs – but this works. ::snort::

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I began to make football treats. I made air popped popcorn – healthy. I made chocolate covered peanuts – sliding. I added peanut butter and popcorn and made chocolate covered popcorn – unhealthy. I concluded football is bad for your health. (Jamin tells me this is a fallacy of some sort – any guesses which sort?)

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Arielle began to experiment with Nolan’s new set of snap circuits from Home Science Tools. She made a bulb light up. This caused Nolan to be a bit interested in his gift. ::snort:: Next she had a moving fan. Eventually, it flew across the table, which caused more interest. THEN she adjusted things and it played “Happy Birthday”. Mike joined (after the historic football game) and they created a flashing, noisy police siren.

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Krista studied for Master’s Commission.
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Later I found Bre and Arielle at the computers.
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Jamin and Krista found a new background for his blog, and *I* figured out how to get it installed. This opened a new world of possibilities. These backgrounds allow one to continue to use blogger’s “add an element” feature when installed. BUT the site is NOT one that anyone should visit alone. Accountability is a good thing. We’ve recently realized with the older kids pushing into the cyber world that we need to revisit our household rules on cyber usage.


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Photobucket Family Photo Shoot with "the" photos....

We woke the day after Christmas and did NOT want to take a family photo. We knew, however, that the boys would begin work again on the 27th and we may not get a family photo at all if we didn't do it NOW......We talked about how we didn't want to spend the day doing this, we wanted fun memories....then reality set it. We are a military family. The children are INSISTING on graduating and they don't want to keep moving with us from assignment to assignment. We NEEDED to take advantage of this rare opportunity.

We set up the projector screen. We found photos to project of scenery (and then decided to go with plain). We had ladders, new queen size sheets for backdrops....::snort:: No children were harmed in the making of these images (though a couple of adults pulled a few muscles). We used a Nikon D70, a tripod, and lots of leg energy.

We ended up making a lot of family memories. It turned out to be fun (in a rather twisted, go to the dentist, sort of way)! I don't think there is one photo were EVERYONE is smiling and looking the right way - but we have the same results with less fun in a studio. ::snort::

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We've scarred her for life....
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We had no "wall" photos of Stacia so took about 35 of her. These are the two best ones. One of these will replace her ultra sound photo in her frame in the hallway. Yes, we have a hall of fame and I switch photos out every so often.
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Then we went for group photos - egads!

All the kids
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Our whole family
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Our family with G'ma and G'pa
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Mike with kids
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De'Etta with kids
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A 3 generation photo
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Mike & De'Etta
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I began to goof around which resulted in THIS
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I thought it might be a good shot to post when new staffs begin to check us out before our next assignment. ::snort::
Or this:
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This was my first experience with photo shop and I'm sure the experts will want to do a few more things to these before we send them out. I'm happy. I got rid of the split in the screen, red eye and 1/2 an inch of thyroid thighs in one photo. ::snort::
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