SIDEWALKS

As I fell asleep last night I began to think of sidewalks. I grew up with sidewalks. Our home in Hardin, MT had sidewalks. They were great for walks; chasing toddlers, trikes….our town now has no sidewalks. Most the spots we visited had no sidewalks.

Does this say something about our society? We no longer need sidewalks because we aren’t home to leisurely enjoy those afternoons on the sidewalks? Or we’re too lazy to edge around the sidewalks….much easier to mow to the curb? Or we’re more territorial and don’t want our neighbors to have easy access to our yard?

And what happened to Front Porches – which the SIDEWALKS led up to???? What about your area of the country? I'm interested in now in this sidewalk issue. I think I want our next assignment to be to a place with sidewalks. ::snort::

Does this matter at all? Probably not, but it seemed profound at mid-night

Mike's Experiment:

Same room, same time, same girl, same lighting....

Now with the SLR:

She is moving in this one....

We really concluded, as Lisa has, that nothing will compare to the SLR....for taking quick shots of little ones....I think I will begin to leave the Nikon out again....and if we get a point and click it will be for things that pop up when I haven't brought the SLR. Maybe. LOL

Our Grand Shopping Adventure

This led to a quick trip to Sam's Club for:

Produce

and Milk (the boys are thrilled to be off their month of milk rations! LOL)

Gas in our hometown....ties with Troutdale, OR for the cheapest we've seen (Oh - the Sam's door guard was not happy that I took this photo - I explained).

"Getting My House in Order" or "Vacation Recovery"

I've decided to spend the week focusing on my continuing quest for organization. This covers much more than the physical home. Two years ago God told me to spend the next season of my life "getting my house in order". I'll write more about that later - maybe.

For NOW - this means that I'm getting back to routines. I want to tie up loose ends from last school year. I need to get the boys' portfolios mailed. The house is fairly clean but I want to deep clean a few areas. I want to organize the school closet, my files, and Darshia motivated us to try yet another overhaul of our toy closet. ::snort:: I also want all the walls washed. I have a ton of "getting back home things to do". I'm taking this week to get it all in order before I try to jump back into life.

The exception to this is the produce co-op. I NEED produce on Friday so I will spend some time tomorrow making calls, hopefully getting enough shares to place an order.

Today I: continued laundry, paid bills, balanced the checkbook, returned library books, bought produce, COOKED dinner, met our new chaplains, sent out a produce co-op email, made some phone calls, picked up PBS books at the post office and went to Curves.

I also said "no". I wanted to say "yes". Our region is having a Leadership Retreat THIS weekend. It would be Friday/Saturday. They graciously offered to pay my gas and room and would really like for me to come. I'd like to go. The speaker will be great. The weekend is geared to making you a better leader. I'd love to be there. PWOC here is small and I miss a larger group of supportive military women. This would be a great thing. EXCEPT - I JUST GOT HOME FROM A 31 DAY TRIP!!! I would have to drive to Lawton, OK on Friday and back on Saturday Evening..... and really it is in conflict with my overriding goal for the week - and this season "to get my house in order". I said, No. Lynn, Darshia - are you proud of me? I don't think I said "no" more than 2 times in Alaska. ::snort:: I felt terrible telling them no and they may call again tomorrow....If you hear I'm going to OK over the weekend...I said "maybe". ::snort::

CAMERA HUNT - Give Your Input

I resisted digital. We eventually bought one. We bought a HP that we liked but it lasted a year and broke (my Cannon from high school still works fine - The Nikon has lasted 10 years to date LOL). There were things we found we loved about digital and things we hated. It was REALLY frustrating to miss the "expression" because of lag time. This is an issue with young children. It was also really frustrating to know we'd have gotten a better photo with our bigger SLR lenses.....

Mike bought the Nikon Dwhatever 70/90???? And I loved it. It had all the advantages of the 35mm SLR I was used to AND the advantages of being digital. We can switch lenses between the SLR and the DL. The zoom lenses on the smaller digitals simply don't compare to the bigger, interchangeable Nikon lenses.

My problem is NOT what many of you say. "I'd never take a big camera with me." I've hauled one or two 35 mm cameras around since high school. The problem is that Mike gets nervous watching me juggle the "spendy" camera with the diaper bag, car seats, library books etc.

When Mike deployed we bought a cheap digital - cheapest we could find. We knew he needed a camera but we knew the sand was lethal on digitals. LOL Office Depot has a great guarantee that works well for those deploying. IF the sand ruins your camera you get a new one. LOL Mike asked me to begin using the small digital for my "around town trips" about 6 weeks ago.

Here's the verdict....I LIKE the pocket size. I like the wide viewing screen it has (much bigger than most). It was DEFINITELY lighter and easier to hike with in AK.

I don't like the delay. It doesn't matter that it's "small" - it's noticeable and there. It doesn't take true colors - Stacia's purple shirt looks blue etc. When using the optical zoom feature it gets blurry. When taking photos of scenery things far away become indistinct and often it doesn't "quite" focus (see examples of today's travel photos). In other words with THIS small digital I'm taking more photos but they are NOT the quality of photo that we are used to in our albums etc. They are more the "Instamatic type" photos of the 1970's. LOL There was a GREAT photo of a rainbow ending at Walmart that I tried to get and the rainbow didn't even show up - it would have with any of our other cameras. We got the NIKON out when we were in AK so that we could have good mountain and moose photos. LOL

Mike says this was a trial camera to see if I'd like a small one. Now we're searching for a small one that will do what I want it to do...all those positives without the list of negatives.

If you use a small digital, will you please post in the comment section of this post? WHICH one do you use, what do you love, what are you not so happy with, a link to your blog with photos taken with the camera - AND are they touched up - I never touch up. Anything else you think may be helpful.....

Day 31 - HOME

15 July 2007

Moto Lotto: Jared won today. My way of scoring was to simply count who won the most days and they were the grand winner. Mike and Jared have come up with a system that involves scoring points for all, every day and such. Jared's currently looking to see who the winner is. By my method of scoring Jared won - the winner on 4 days, followed by Mike with 3 days and Jamin and I with 2 days each....

Quote of the Day: "We're rich! We're rich!" Zander's repeated phrase as he ran for our front door. This was followed by "What? The DOOR'S LOCKED!!!" ::snort::

We arrived home at 3 p.m. We spent the last few hours unpacking, cleaning, doing laundry, showering etc. Stacia's busying herself with repeated meltdowns. I'll share more trip thoughts I'm sure when I have time to think....but for now...WE'RE HOME!!!!

Some final (or maybe not) road trip photos:

Amarillo, TX

Panhandle of TX

Getting close to home....

Windmills near our town - see what I mean about fading backgrounds and fuzzy zooms?

We're home - see what I mean about focus?

The van is even vacuumed - what a team!

Has she REALLY not had enough of the seat?

Mike took Josiah out for trailer pulling practice

Jamin made us pizza for dinner! Yum. (another example of the indistinct focusing) Road Trip 2007 is over. It was great - but more thoughts than that will have to wait.

Summer Reading Challenge Update!

Here is a list of the books I read on our road trip.

By Alexander McCall Smith

~The Kalahari Typing School for Men

~The Full Cupboard of Life

~In the Company of Cheerful Ladies

~Blue Shoes and Happiness

I continue to really enjoy this series. Time to see if there are more in the series. I've listed all these on PBS tonight....hop on over if you want one of them. Link is in the sidebar.

I also read "Murder Plays House" by Ayelet Waldman. I feel like I'm coming to understand Juliet as I continue to read this series. I don't find her quite as obnoxious as I did after reading the first book. This is NOT my favorite book in this series. I do NOT like new characters being introduced in the final 20 pages who turn out....well anyway. ::snort:: I also didn't really enjoy many of the characters/plot lines of this one.

Sorry for the brief reviews...but that's all I have time for tonight.