My Baby is 18

Michael is having a birthday today. A celebration of a very important day for me that happened eighteen years ago. He has been a joy in our lives nearly everyday since then, and we are so glad he is part of our family.
I'm going to make a little list of 18 things that he does to make us smile.
1 - He smiles! (and isn't it a cute one - nice teeth Dad)
2 - I think he even likes his sometimes dorky parents
3 - Makes me realize I'm not very good at teaching kids how to clean their rooms (before M I just assumed it was the kids fault, but after having a few that lacked in this area I figured it must actually be me)
4 - Let's us yell "GO Michael Michael" at his basketball games and doesn't even complain.
5 - Spends hours on Nike.com testing out new b-ball shoe colors and configurations.
6 - Studies pretty hard so that he can get good grades.
7 - Has always gone to church without complaint. He's grown to enjoy it and tries to even get me there on time.
8 - Goes to early morning seminary 95% of the time with again no complaints.
9 - Enjoys playing games with the family.
10- Chooses his friends well.
11 - Has come up with a unique signature and is artistic and creative in many areas.
(How 'bout the final in Ceramics class last year. A b-ball shoe)
12 - Helps me with my technological challenges. Sometimes being more patient than other.
13 - Has learned how to make several things for breakfast. (thanks Kira )
14 - Still depends on me for a good smoothy.
15 - Is a nice Uncle "Michael Michael" and becoming a little less scared of babies.
16 - Thinks he's really cute and funny with his "caustic" body emissions (I guess he kinda is sometimes)
17 - Is the youngest cousin and one that everyone is glad to know, protect, and expect much from.
18 - Makes us glad for BIG families!!!!

Back to Homework

Michael started back to school for his senior year this morning. Last night seemed to be no different than any other end of weekend night in the school year. Although he did his darnedest (is that a real word?) to complete his summer work last week, he was still last minute on getting it all finished, keeping him up until about 1 am this morning working on AP Biology.You ask, "how come he already had homework?" Well the advanced classes have more and more pre-class work as the years go on, and he had to categorize and write about the life of this planet.

English always has summer reading, but he was thinking he wasn't going to be able to take the Bio class, and so he just started the hw for it last week.

He took some cool pictures of his selected "plant" and "animal" on Saturday. I helped him edit and the Hubby helped him with the pictures, but they did turn out pretty good didn't they?
Here's a close up of the "Carpenter Bee".
..... and his favorite flower the "Passion Flower". Nice pix Michael.
There's the big bee inside this flower, so we lightened it up a bit more so the bee could be seen.
Pretty cool, huh?

I think he's going to enjoy the class, even though there will be scads of homework. He has a great teacher. (I think my only other kid to have Mr. Hammock was Jonathan for Physics. J says he learned more from him than his college Physics class)

Well, I'm off to Grand Junction for the week. My parents need to be visited, and my lil sis is having a partay for her newlywed son. (See previous post.)

Experiment with Proof Colors

This is an experiment with Photoshop and my pictures posted yesterday. I noticed that they appeared washed out in the post and wanted them to look as fabulous as they do on my computer monitor. I realize it was a very bright and sunny day, so the sun was casting shadows and bouncing off everything, but the pictures look so much richer before I post them to the blog.So I took the advice of a fellow blogger that I ran into and changed the "View." Under Proof Setup, you just flip the button to "Monitor RBG" instead of Macintosh RBG or Windows RBG.
Let's see how it worked, and if there is a difference at all.
Maybe not much of a difference. What do you think. I guess I should put them next to each other. I'll keep experimenting.

Ball Game Variety

While we were in Boston, we were able to take in a Red Sox game. What a great old park Fenway is! After raining hard all morning, the weather cleared and the steam was rising as the game neared.Stephanie's old friend from grade school through high school just happened to be introduced as an All-Star for the Cape Cod Summer League before the game began. You'll have to keep your eye out for our local boy Kyle Blair as he tries to progress as a pitcher in the baseball ranks.
Brad and Camille (my seestor) along with Dane and Aimee (the betrothed) were able to take time from the wedding plans to attend the game too.
Big highlight was David Ortiz hitting a home run for us. It just happened to be the very day that the news of his steroid use in 2003 came out. I guess he was trying to prove a point, and it sorta worked.
If you ask me, this is a pretty timely picture taken by the hubby. You should see all of his awesome shots taken in series with his great Nikon D3. There are about 12 of this swing alone, and all are so clear and beautiful it is hard to choose which one to post.

Now we will move onto another type of game.

Yesterday we were able to attend Lexy's first U6 Soccer game in Campbell. She is nearing 4 y/o so is one of the younger ones on the team and it was a fun afternoon.

Here is little sister Lena getting all prepared for the game. Look at those baby blues!!
.... And Ellery was so exited to be able to sit and to try some toys on for taste.
Maybe the bottle of milk is a little more filling.
Lexy showing off her gear pre game. Cool cleats.Running with the other kiddles.
All finished for a while.

"These socks are hot, and I even have some neat shin guards on underneath them."
Lena wants the "ba ba" to sit down right here so she can play with her.
Here we go.
Aunt Kathryn is a fun entertainer. "Get your hat Lena."

Cropped, this picture is even better. Pretty sunny day with lots of shadows, but the colors are great and kids are cute anyway.
Thanks Lexy for a totally different fan experience. Fun times!!

Inger

I have a 91 year old friend who has been needing  rides to and from her ADL's as well as errands to be run. Inger was born  40years before me and she shares so (sowah) many stories of her childhood in Norway, as well as tidbits of gained wisdom for my enjoyment.
Her dog "Teddy" needs to be trimmed every other month or so, and she herself needs a shampoo and set every couple of weeks. We then go to the grocery store, doctors office, the drug store, clothing store or nursery. About 3 errands is what she can handle in the day and she then usually takes me to lunch, or we buy it and eat at her home.
...which is high up a narrow, winding, mountain road just up, up, up the hill from our little Town of Los Gatos. It seems about 10 degrees cooler up there on a hot day, but since she and her older son (who doesn't drive) moved up there last year, she has had to give up driving

Inger's little Prius is just sitting in the driveway and should probably be sold before it sits too much longer.

I enjoy my time with Inger and try to learn something from her each time I see her.

What a GEM !

Parte Deux

Last night as I was trying desperately to finish my story and uploading pictures I had some of those pictures disappear.

I suppose it is user error, but sometimes I struggle with the words matching up with the appropriate pictures.

Anyhow,....

Here are my two cute kiddles enjoying themselves outside the temple.

Up above is the proud father of the groom along with my handsome Hubby. They are "Bud's".

Finally, the mother of the groom and my sis Camille with her loving big sis.

I'm actually proud of this picture because my eyes were half closed in one picture and C's eyes were all the way closed in the next pix (which BTW doesn't make you look as dumb as half open). So ... I photoshopped (CS4) the two pictures (shown at the beginning of this post) together and erased the bad face one on the top layer so the good one underneath showed. Lookey, lookey we are sooo cute!!!

The Wedding of '09

Our "incredibly shrinking family" traveled across the country to Boston this past week to participate and celebrate in the marriage of our nephew/cousin Dane.

We all had a great time in "Bean Town" attending a Sox game which I should later address, walking the Freedom Trail, seeing old (for our country) historical sites and connections to our countries past, going to Salem, having a clam bake, and of course attending a wedding.

The grounds of the temple on this

bright sunny day

are beautiful and serene.

Here's the couple arriving before the ceremony begins. "Are we ready for this?"

Austin our young cousin/great nephew hanging out with Stephanie and Michael.

Dane and Aimee coming out after the ceremony.

The Grant and Michael (wishing he was 6'9").

Adam and Christina pinning the boutonniere with precision.

C & I had a bonding moment last night talking about babies, birthing, & nursing.

But our best bonding came today just before the ceremony when she leaned over to me and asked very quietly.

" What is the orange thing around that man's neck?"

I could only look and reply, "I think it's a Pirate."

Yes, it was quite the Bolo.!!!

The wedding party in front of the temple.

The Fam.

My big brother Steve and his boys minus all their wives and 83% of the kids.

As a little side note, our family actually isn't shrinking as you can read about here. We did miss having everyone at this event, but it was across the country and many of them are planning to attend a party for the newly married couple at the end of the month in "Big J".