Fall

Another thing I love about Fall

Children's authors love to publish books for the Fall. I assume for the Christmas season and to get their books out in time to submit them for awards. There are stacks for new books out right now. Of course one of them has to be about Elephant and Piggie. Also out, new titles by Kate Dicamillo, Laura Numeroff, Norton Juster, David Shannon, Graeme Base, Doreen Cronin, Mark Rogalski, Margaret Wild, and maybe I should stop there before my post gets to be ten pages long. I love a well illustrated book...

Josiah had a party too

Come Clay with Me

Adaya had a birthday party at Come Clay with Me. I won a party certificate at an auction. So we invited several little friends. And when the youngest ones couldn't make it, we invited a few that were a wee bit older than Adaya. We painted tiles, ate, visited, had ducky cup cakes, opened a few presents, a created a small plate with our finger prints.

two of Adaya's friends

My 1 and 5 yr old

I just want to say, "I love you, Wesly." Even if you do give me crap about having three blogs and posting on all three in one evening.

Phiner Things Club

We started a blog. (Actually, Ashby started it.) Check it out. My friends are amazing photographers!

http://phinerthingsphotos.blogspot.com/

Adaya turns one!

Has it really been a year? She's growing up way too fast. We did a little celebrating this evening. It was community group night and we ordered pizza in honor of Adaya's birthday. We also had cake and presents. Adaya was super excited about her quatro blocks. Before the lid was off, she pointed at them repeatedly and was just giddy with excitement. She knew what they were too. One of the first times she pointed at them we all heard her say, "Daya lego." She wasn't sure what to do with the cake. She timidly stuck her finger in the frosting and played with it a bit before sticking her hand into the cake. Of course the real party is still yet to come, Saturday. We're taking some friends to "Come Clay with Me" via a Visible Grace auction prize.

It's here!

My first Unit has arrived! I'm so excited! I have 4 lessons to read (which include lots of large example photos), 5 CD's of lectures to listen to, and a DVD to watch. Then I have a test to take and a photo project to complete. I also got my light tent today and a DVD on how to use it.

However, I have a Bible study to catch up on and a birthday party to throw on Sunday. So I guess it will have to wait a bit.

It's a niece!

But I already knew that. Stephen and Amy just had an ultrasound and confirmed that they are having a baby girl.

We went to the zoo again

Last Thursday Josiah, Adaya, and I went to the zoo with some friends. Chris and Ava came. As did Joel, Natalie, and baby Garrett (his first trip to the zoo). And of course we were graced with the presence of Mrs Carlson.

Photo school

This evening I enrolled in the New York Institute of Photography. I am going to take their professional photography course. I've been feeling kind of stagnant in my photography lately, like I'm just not getting any better. Hopefully, this will give me the skills to take my photography to the next level. It's a study at home, at your own pace kind of thing. They say it can be completed in half a year. I'd like to finish in two years, but they allot up to three. The tuition goes up $200 at the end of the week, that's why I decided to enroll now. I also got $350 off the current price. Now if only I had a couple of friends who also A) wanted to take the course and B) could afford to take it.

rechargable batteries

The problem with rechargables, they're always dead when you go to use them. This just doesn't work when your child's favorite toy needs new batteries, or when you need the sparkling symphony to play your baby to sleep, or you need the leap pad to entertain your child during at least part of the five hour trip to grandma's. But I found a sulution, eneloop. They rock! They're rechargables that actually hold a charge (85% after a whole year of storage), and they come charged. They have AA's and AAA's, and they have C and D addaptors. If you have kids or have a baby on the way (hint,hint, Stephen and Amy), they are a must. You will save lots of money over the years that you're not using disposables and they have 1000 recharging cycles. That's a lot of batteries not in the trash. I'm slowly replacing all the batteries in our house with eneloops. In fact, I may finally have enough to call it good. Of course, they're for sale at Costco.

Rose-Tu delivers

We were in the elephant museum when her water broke today. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay to watch the birth (on the monitor). We'd planned to come home for lunch. Just wanted to take Josiah on the Dino walk before it closed on labor day.

http://www.katu.com/news/27316739.html

legos rock

My mom thinks I'm crazy. I think Wes understands. Ashby seems to love my models.

I am using legos to help me work out the details of grace academy. This is what my most recent models looked like. Of course, I'm redesigning now. But hey, they're legos. I can pull it all apart and put it back together differently. I wonder how many legos I have now...

sunblock did this

one more picture I have to share

Ethnos Camping trip