HGTV'd

Maybe this truck I saw is coming to my house!!! I'd love to have you come and fix up my kitchen. My bathroom. My basement. My backyard. Please?

A sneak peek

A sneak peek at what's been going on at our house

Scott + Melissa

Nine years ago today Scott and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple. We were so young and so happy. Nice to know that nine years later, we may not be so young but we are still happy.

screen saver

Oh my, so I found an even better collage of faces besides just the screen shot I posted about here. This is my new screen saver at work. I could look at it for hours.

Editing

I've mentioned before my love of photo editing software. Now, I don't profess to be any kind of professional or very good at editing at all, I just like to play around. I think the best part is that you can take a crappy photo from your BlackBerry and turn it into something that looks artsy instead of really bad! These were edited in Picnik, a new program accessed through Picasa.

(shoot, this one was focal black and white but also something that pixelated it a bit - sorry, can't fully remember what I did to this one!)

(this effect is called cross process - where we are mimicking the technique wherein you would intentionally use incorrect chemicals to process film for more interesting colors and contrast. Yes, that's a KFC carton on her head.)

(this mimics a "Holga" camera when using black and white film and a red filter. I have never heard of that kind of camera, I just know that I LOVE this picture for some weird reason.)

Hiding

clouds

I was looking out the kitchen window thinking what beauiful light was outside. I wish Maddy was awake so I could drag her out for a photo. When I went out to look at the sky, I was in awe of the beautiful clouds. I'm not sure what it is about the sky but there is just something grand and celestial about a sky filled with clouds, the setting sun, and off to the East, lightning striking the sky. Makes me feel small but in a good, eternal way.

And, because I have a husband worth bragging about, who does work worth bragging about, here is a picture of the rock wall he has just finished. Now time for a bit more dirt and some landscaping. Also, BEST GRASS I'VE EVER HAD!!! I am so pleased with my lawn. I've personally been working really hard on it. Urea every month - the way to go, I'm sold.

Faces

Picasa has a feature where it identifies faces in the pictures stored in your albums and allows you to give names to the faces. This is helpful so you can identify quickly, every picture in the albums of - say - Grandma'dele. Or, when you are looking through an album and have forgotten who the person is, it will remind you - kind of like tagging a person in Facebook. The fun thing was that often times it would mix up people (it gives you suggested names based on the other faces you've already identified), like, it mixed up Jakson and Dalton a lot. Or it would mix up me and my sisters and mom. I thought it quite impressive that there is family resemblance enough that the software can see it. There was a baby picture of me that it identified as Maddy. I guess Maddy really does look like I did as a kid. It also is fun later to look at all the close up faces of the person and see how they've changed over time. I sure love my family and friends. What joy I get looking at their smiling faces!

I Jackson. You Katie

We had a family reunion a couple of weeks ago and the best part was that Jackson was there!!! Maddy and Jack-Jack love to play together. As soon as we arrived, they headed to the sand to play.


I'm not sure what the game was but Maddy kept laying face down in the sand. At some points, Jackson dribbled sand all over her. Crazy kids.

Last Sunday as we were getting ready for church maddy informed me that she was "Jackson. You Katie". Katie of course, is my sister and Jackson's mommy. Then for the next 30 minutes she called me Katie and insisted that I call her Jackson. Seriously. I thought that maybe she'd drop it after a minute or two but it lasted quite some time. Where does she come up with these things?