We Did It!

As I was saying before, we were actually LOOKING for a house,.... we found one we REALLY loved,... good price, wonderful neighborhood, just a pretty home. We made an offer, they didn't like it, so we were gonna just go for it and give what they were asking, and they had to think about it. What's to think about??? They soon realized that what they were asking wasn't enough to get them a house that they would like. They pulled the house off the market. That really put us off on finding a home in our area here.

We checked out another, considered another and then we were shown this one. Outside of town, meant no DSL, didn't know for sure if we could even get cable for the kids rooms. No city trash, water and not even sure who we got electric from. But such a great house!!! Huge lot, so plenty of room for a nice deck or pool or whatever for later on. Brand new house!!! The sellers had just finished it this year and were living in it while they finished it up.

As of Thursday 29th, we now own the house :o) Very exciting. We will have keys today sometime. So, I need to pack pack pack..... it will be a very busy and exciting week. I look forward to the older 2 kids to get home from their dads so they can see their new house :o) Here's a picture for you to see!!

Been Awhile!

Wow, didn't realize it'd been so long since I posted last. You'll be happy to hear that I managed to come out of my photography class with a B! Wow!!!! My final exam was a test as well as turning in 10 photos. 5 of those photos could be older photos that he's seen, or not seen, and 5 needed to be new. I think I did a pretty good job,... I submitted 5 that he'd seen and redid touch ups through the photoshop. The test seemed easier as well.

Now the kids are finally out of school for summer too! Yesterday we picked up report cards and came home. Well, I took one with me to get groceries,.... but that's IT!! No school until Aug. 21st now :o)

Other than that,.... just plugging along. Hoping to buy a bigger house for us soon, if we can ever find something in our area that we're happy with. Just a long process all the way around, but at least we're LOOKING!!!

Spring Break is over....

Last week was Spring Break for the kids, and myself. I had asked hubby since I was on Spring Break, could I go to Daytona??? Isn't that where all the kids go???? His reply "Suuurreee,.... take off... just don't forget to take the kids with you!" DOH!!!! Some Spring Break huh? LOL

Unfortunatly our weather was crappy all week, we had rain and cold temps all week long. Hubby was working nights so we were stuck in the house having to be quiet so he could sleep. I think Geoffery was the only one getting a bit stir crazy being cooped up like that. He is such an active kid, and there's only so much one can do inside before you're bored to tears.

Monday Sydney was ill, so we took off bright and early for the Drs. I knew we'd not make the sick call hours, so I called and made an apt and we stopped off at Target (my favorite store!) first :o) While there, I got to purchase my newest toy.... iPod Video!! OMG this little thing is so cool,.... boy we're such nerds! Got a few other things and then headed to the Drs. Seems Sydney is suffering with allergies. I told her she could thank me for it. I guess after that we came on home.

Thursday was Brian's day. Time to get his "expanders" in his mouth. We left the house right 'bout 9am for his 10am apt. I think it was more like 10:30 when they called him back there. I had all the kids with me,.... girls playing on their DS's and Geoffery on his SP (nerdy family huh?) and me with my new iPod video!!! I had downloaded some episodes of the new show Conviction, it's really pretty good :) So I relaxed while we waited watching that. Geoffery by 10:45 was bent out of shape having to stay in this little waiting area, and wanted to go home. This was telling me that the rest of our day wasn't going to go so well. His impatience meant my frustration. Finally Brian was done,... they had to show me how to adjust this equipment each night,... basically giving me permission to torture my son. This could be good.... "... what do you mean you got an F on your test??? that's it!!!" give his expanders a few extra turns!! haha!! LOL No no, I wouldn't really do that ;o) Anyhow.... learned how to do that, and off we went. First stop the mall. I needed to get my wedding ring inspected, and Brian needed new shoes. The mall is closing as our NEW BIGGER BETTER mall is opening (TOMORROW!!!!) so my jewelry store was closed up already. Figures. Went into Dillards as they were having mega sales.... nothing good.... went to Sears and ALL kinds of tennis shoes :o) Yay!! Jackpot!!! So, the boys both got new tennis shoes for dirt cheap :o) Boy I love a good sale!!! Through it all though, Geoffery was very wound up, ready to run and play through the store,... had Jess keep an eye on him while we hunted for Brian's shoes.... I was getting hot and irritable because the kids were getting cranky and tired. They're NOT shoppers. I couldn't wait to get out of there. With shoes in hand we rushed out of the mall.

Still another stop to make.... WalMart. We needed some groceries and a few other things, which I think I forgot. I wanted an FM transmitter dealie for my NEW iPod Video :o) LOL So that I could play my iTunes through the car radio :o) I just love technology!!! But yeah,.... I forgot all about it. Dragging the girls and Geoffery through a busy WalMart is NOT my idea of a fun Spring Break outting.

We got back into the truck and poor Brian was feeling miserable. I had given him a fun size KitKat and he could only nibble on it as his mouth was soooo sore. I felt horrible. If I had even thought, I'd of picked up some Advil in the store :o( Poor guy. I had wanted to take the kids to Taco Bell for lunch, but by the time we were done, we needed to get home so I could fix dinner for hubby before he left for work!

PHEW!! What a day. What a week!!!!

I played hooky yesterday from school, so I could spend the day home ALONE with hubby :o) It was nice. Nice and quiet. I really needed it LOL Today the kids were in school, hubby returned back to work on days this week. I have been doing laundry and cleaned our room REALLY good. Busy busy!!!!

I did want to share something I learned in the lab part of my class,... it's where I learn to edit my photos using PhotoShop 7.0 I've been having a lot of fun in that class,.... I'm sorry it's just one day a week. There's just so much he could teach us. Thankfully, my SIL got me a copy of it, so I can play with it at home and try and learn new things :o)

It's all about the "panning"

Feb. 22nd I took a midterm. I can't tell you how stressed out I was over this. For starters, hubby was off work starting Monday morning..... and won't return to work until the evening of March 4th!! I really just wanted to BE HOME with him. Also, it had been like 20yrs since I've taken any sort of test that I can recall LOL I had to go Monday, even though the kids were off due to President's Day.... nice huh?? I had to go to school!!! Grrr.....

We were given a study guide for the midterm. We went over all the questions, answered them and all that fun stuff. When I got home that afternoon, I looked it over some, went through the book. As he had said not everything is covered on this guide. Tuesday I did more of the same and took some pictures to help reinforce some of the things we've been learning. I will never keep aperture and shutter speed right.... anyhow... I studied hard Tuesday. For a good 4hrs at least. Then I took off for the store, bought a few things to do a make shift home studio. I also picked up hubby the new 360 game Fight Night :o) Early Bday present for him!!

Weds came..... I was sure hopeful I would do well on this exam. Brian first had an ortho apt, so he got out of school that day. They put teenie rubber bands around 4 of his teeth to make room for the caps that will be put on this Weds and then more hardware next Weds. Lucky kid. The teenie rubber bands were uncomfortable enough.... boy is he in for a treat huh? LOL

We were in and out of there, and got to the school parking lot, a metered spot of course, but hey, it was close!! :o) I had Brian quiz me... and I did really well I think :o) Got into the class and worried some more. I'm really wanting to do well in this class,... I want to know I'm retaining this stuff, and I want us to get paid back for the class as well. Anyhow, I looked through the pages before we actually started, and gasped.... "Panning???" to the girl beside me,... "... did we go over that???" she giggled and smiled and nodded her head yes. "CRAP!" Sigh.

I went through the 40 question test (I'm pretty sure it was 40 problems) some were True/False and others were written and worth 5pts. Yup, you guessed it,... panning was a 5pt question. Great. I had NO idea. I mean,.... I kinda did,... but sure didn't know what the correct answer was. I kept in my head, panning through like a forest or something,.... going from one side to the other.... *sigh* what a dope. Everything else I think I did fairly well. I might not have given the answer exactly as he would have liked, but hopefully it was enough to show that I knew what it meant??? If that makes sence. In any event, there was a gaggle of the class standing in the hall talking about the test. Panning = following your moving subject (more or less) GAH!! I remember going over that now :o( Dangit!!!!! So, yeah, I was for sure 5pts off on that test :o( That so sucks.

I should be in class this morning,.... but today is hubby's Bday and I wanted to be home with him. We went out to dinner with some friends Saturday night and had a wonderful time. Company and food both were really good. Hubby works with the friend, and we used to play World of Warcraft with them online as well. Friend is VERY talented, he can draw/carve/whatever else from memory. I don't have even a pinky fingers worth of his talent. His latest hobby has been scrimshaw He looked at a picture hubby had of Geoffery, and started on a small piece.... he gave it to me Saturday night... I can't even begin to say how amazed I am at this. I had read up on scrimshaw back when hubby told me about what he was doing, and really after reading it and seeing a piece,.... you just have no idea. You don't see the marks in the material, but yet this image is right there!! Just amazing. Anyhow, I wanted to share this today :o)

Pictures!!

I am going to attempt to post the pictures I had tried to post from the last blog entry.... hopefully it will work this time :o)

And the winner is......

Nahh... no winners :o) Just thought I'd say that as this follows the night of the awards dealie last night......

I did get my grades back Monday though!! A perfect score is 50. My "Anything" assignment was of the cat in the bag,... I got a 45/50. Okay.... I lied,... due to it being late, I got a 44 (but what's one point?) I was very pleased with that, as I knew this was the better photo submission.

The picture of the figurine, I got 44/50 and the one of the cat/bookcase 43/50!!! Wow huh??? Yeah, I was pretty darned surprised.

This weeks turn in is supposed to be "Natural Lighting". Well, over the weekend, when the sun actually tried to poke through the clouds, I attempted some trial shots in our yard. However, no matter what I did, the camera was showing "underexposed" on the meter. This didn't make me happy to say the least. What was I doing wrong??? Very frustrating!

Well, Monday morning, I was fiddling with the camera, the lenses etc,... when I was messing with my normal lens, I saw that the aperture wasn't moving inside. This is what needs to move to let the light in (or keep light out) and what would change how the exposure is for outside. Hmm..... it's STUCK????? No WONDER I wasn't getting good readings huh???? Or maybe I am just confused and don't know what the Hell I'm talking about as I've never messed with stuff like this.

I took the camera along with me to class. I popped in and talked to the lab guy Ernie and had him take a look at the lens. He moved things around and confirmed what I didn't want to hear.... it was busted. *SIGH*

After speaking to my instructor, I explained and told him for at least this assignment I would use my digital. I've gotta clean the card though.... as I got to have some fun with my SIL over the weekend and took some nice shots of the kids :)

I am in the process of trying to find a replacement lens for the Canon AE1 now.... found a pretty awesome site for stuff for it. I hope to maybe over time (as I learn more on how to use various lenses) to buy more from there. www.keh.com is the site

Here are a few of the pictures I took (and edited in Photoshop Elements 2.0) over the weekend of the kids :) I think they turned out pretty decent. I had my aperture setting off though, as they all came out too dark.

So, there you have it,.... and much to my surprise, I don't suck that bad with a camera when it comes to assignments. It's easy to snap off a few pics of the kids or cats, but to get to specifics,.... a little more complicated. But, I'm learning...... slowly :o)

Hmmm... for some reason the pictures aren't publishing on here.... I will try again later on :)

Another not so much photographer day....

Tonight I went to my first lab session. This is where you go to upload/scan and whatever else to your photos, put them on the school server for the teacher to view them and then grade them, and then show them to the class so everyone can laugh at you!! Sounds great huh?????

Actually it was VERY interesting!! I was in awe of what simple (yet expensive) software can do for you!!! In this class, we use Photoshop 7.0. I missed the first two classes,.... so I got a crash course in the basics. Unfortunatly no one told me I'd be using an APPLE computer!!!! OMG!!!! I felt so lame,.... made me miss my computer SOOOOO very much!!!! In any event, the two girls beside me, helped me out when I would screw up and close out a window unintentionally and not know where the heck to go to get back to the screen I needed. We had 3 sample pictures,.... pictures that our instructor took. He takes a lot of the sporting photos for the school. This is probably pretty silly to most, but he had this picture of a vollyball game. Looking at the photo, I think "wow that's pretty darned good!" Until he fixes it. The net wasn't even in the photo,..... he showed us how to take something like that, straighten the photo out and ta da, it looks more like the focal point of the whole image!!! WOW!!!!!!! HOLY COW!!!!! So, me, I sit there thinking what pictures can I do that too????? Anxious to get home and play with some photos and all. He showed me a nice little tool in the software that would instantly fix,.... while a lot of programs I've used, have this, for some reason, this was just a lot neater :o) For starters, it brought up this box and showed you exactly what it did,.... how much it raised the greens or reds,.... and if you didn't like the way it looked, you could move those lines in the box yourself. WOW!!!! I love this!!!!!

So, yeah, I got a crash course tonight. I had 3 pictures to do too. My first was my "anything" photo.


I don't have the exact version of photoshop at home, but this is pretty much how the teacher will see it. It was the best of all the pictures I took,.... I'm anxious to see what he thinks of it LOL I mean, yeah, it's just a couple of goofy cats... but still :o) The colors turned out really nice and I was very pleased with it.

Then we move onto my next assignment, which is "Depth of Field". I took some pictures yesterday, last night.... and today. I had them developed at WalMart, One Hour. I quickly learned that I don't know depth of field very well. I sucked pretty badly on the photos. I sat there looking at the pictures the two girls took beside me. Put me to shame. What was worse is that the girl (who was VERY nice and helpful) took photo's of a graveyard,.... some nice stones and all.... grrr... that's what **I** was going to do,.... but I saw it in our book and didn't want to repeat what was already there,.... but DAMN did her stuff look awesome!!!! *mutters under her breath.... bitch* They were really pretty pictures though. The girl to my left, she had some neat ones of this tree with these weird berry things hanging from it,.... the colors were just beautiful. Another was of this archway of vines,.... again, very pretty with the colors and all. I'm sitting there looking at my crap. That's what it was,.... crap. Talk about frustration. Well, I had to pick something right????? This is what I came up with:


This is a picture for "deep" depth of field,.... focus is on the bookcase and not on the cat,.... very sucky picture, but sadly it was the best I had. Even after cropping and such, I still hated it. But, what can you do?????? Well, for starters, spend more time taking pictures!!!!

My next picture, is for "shallow" depth of field,... focus on the figurine and not on the other figures. There was a lot more to the actual picture, but after cropping it and all, I think it turned out really well :o) For some reason, the colors here aren't as nice as what I had at school... but at least you get an idea. Also, on this I used the "burn" tool, around her face and dress area, because things were too bright, it helped to bring out a bit more detail (and the fact that I really should dust more!)



So, there you have it,... my first pieces of work. Eh. I know the more I learn, the better I will become, but I sure hate waiting LOL I want instant stardom!!! Well, okay.... maybe not THAT, but I am hopeful that I will get better :o) LOL Monday I should have grades on all these pictures,... so I will be sure to post the outcome!

Next weeks assignment is: "The subject is natural light" Hmm.... should be interesting enough, so long as we don't have more days like today. LOTS of rain!!

On that note, I'm headed to bed :o) Many thanks to my MIL for keeping the kids tonight so I could attend this lab :o) Am looking forward to the next one already!!!

First Assignment Mishaps....

Well, last week I should've turned in my first assignment,.... the project was "anything" How hard could that be???? I had taken several pictures last week, and had planned to leave early Weds morning to stop at Target, get the film processed and a Starbucks while I waited :o)

Weds morning, I was up and nearly ready for school, I felt pretty crappy with a cold coming on. Still yet, I was anxious to see how my pictures turned out. I was getting kids up and going, and poor Sydney said she didn't feel well. With this kid, generally all you have to do is take one look at her and you know. She always goes ghost white when she's feeling bad. She had a low fever,... her throat, head and stomach hurt. In my head you would've heard... "give her some tylenol and send her to school.... no no, do that and they'll call you in an hour saying I need to pick her up.... but I've got school..... yeah, but you're a mom and your daughter IS sick..." Sigh.... yup.... my little girl IS sick. No way could I send her feeling like she does. With that, I got her some medicine and got the rest of the kids going and took them to school.

Sydney and I spent the day relaxing and I am glad I kept her home because her fever shot up to about 102.6 that afternoon. She slept some, and just felt bad. I checked her throat early that evening and I wondered...... had hubby look when he got home and he confirmed it for me,.... we were pretty sure she had strep. Sigh. Poor baby. I've had that once,.... in fact I was pregant with Sydney. It was the worst kind of pain I've ever felt.

Thursday morning, I checked Sydney's throat again,.... hadn't fully given into the fact that it WAS strep (we're not Doctors of course) but when I looked in her throat, ick,.... I've never seen a throat so red and swollen!!! Yup yup, we'll be going to the Drs this morning. We all got ready, took the other 3 to school and off we went to the Drs. This also meant that I wouldn't be attending my lab to get my pictures turned in for my first assignment. Sigh. I was bummed about it. I made up for it though :o) We got to the Drs, and 10mins after they did a throat culture on Sydney, it came back positive. Sure glad I brought her in. Poor kid. She seemed in good spirits though, the Tylenol was helping the pain pretty good :o) We got her Rx and off we went................. to the MALL :o) LOL

We had a nice time together. With four kids, it's hard to get that one on one time with each one of them without one of the others feeling jelous or hurt. We went to Game Stop as I wanted to find the girls the protective films for their DS's. We were there early so we sat and waited, talked a bit. We were the first into the store, for nothing. They didn't have what we wanted. Figures. Although, we did find that they were getting a shipment of XBox 360's in that day and if their reserved got met, I might could buy us one :o) Hubby has been wanting one since they came out and I had hoped to get one for Christmas I really figured we'd not have a chance on getting one this day. We left there and wandered around looking at stuff. We stopped and had a pretzel and drink and watched the people go by. It was nice,... just Sydney and I :o)

Left the mall and headed to WalMart to pick up some food and other junk,... you know, a donut and chocolate milk for the ride home :o) We love our junk food!!! Especially the chocolate kind!!! I called Game Stop when we were nearly done, and the guy said get here in an hour and we'll fix you up. WOOOHOOO!!!! We left there and headed to Game Stop and yup yup, got a 360!!! I was soooo excited, I just couldn't wait to surprise the hubby :o) He was very pleased that we were finally able to get one too :o)

All in all, it was a wonderful day.... I might have missed my class, my first assignment turn in, but you know, it was so worth missing that to spend that time with my youngest daughter. I know years from now, when she's off in college, I can look back on this day and well, I will probably cry because she's not so little anymore, but just to know that we had days like that.

Anyhow, I will be getting my film developed this week, and will post some of the better pictures.... my assignment for this week is "Depth of Field", in which I have to submit 2 photos.

Yesterday's class was interesting. We went over all the photos that were turned in, and got to critique them and learn a bit on lighting. Seems like each time I go to class, I get more excited about the next one. I'm anxious to see how well I do :o)

Photographer I am NOT

So, Friday night, I was browsing through my books, playing with my cameras,... trying to get familiar with things. I want to really get to know my digital camera in manual mode.... however, I must be really dense. Every picture I took, the screen was just this grey.... I still haven't figured out what I was doing wrong yet. I plan to sit down later with it and figure it out :o)

Saturday, I had loaded up film in the 35mm, took me a few tries as I had totally forgotten how to load a camera manually like this. Insert film strip into guide.... etc etc,.... uhhh yeah.... didn't go so well the first few times. My biggest fear is that I'd advance the film too far and expose the film before ever getting to close the door LOL Finally I got it loaded properly!! Time to take some pictures. Sydney was kind enough to help out and blew some bubbles for the cats, which proved to be great subjects for my first "anything" assignment. It was just a roll of 12exp, as I don't know how well this camera works yet at all. We've not used it once since we got it. Finished that roll quick fast. Attempted to advance the film again to make sure though....

Sat down to rewind it,.... manually..... push this button here,... pull this lever up here... and wind away.... hmm.... didn't feel right.... kept winding.... didn't hear anything either....Hmmm...... ????..... opened it up.... in hopes of finding the film all curled up inside it's little canister, but much to my dismay, it was curled around the little guide thing,.... completely.... I think when I had advanced it again to make sure it was through, it pulled right out of the canister???? GAH!!!! So much for that roll :o( How disappointing is that??? I mean,... if I can't even load/rewind film, what kind of photographer am I going to make? LOL Ahh the age of electronics,... makes everyone stupid when you've gotta do things the "old fashioned" way!!!

I bought more film Sunday night, in hopes of trying again. I've already loaded it up, and have taken a few pictures of yes,... the cats... and even the kids let me indulge and take some of them :o) I have an attachment for the camera that rewinds for you automatically,.... I've already attached it to the camera LOL I don't want to mess up this time. My assignment is due by Thursday night for Friday morning grading!!! I can't wait to see how I do!!

Stupid Meters......

Went to class again today.... I left early as I had errands to run at the school. Turn in a form, get my student ID and get my books. So, I thought I'd drive to where the Admin building is, park there and head back to my class. My hope was that I'd be early enough to get a decent parking place near my class building.

So, I drove all over around the Admin building with no luck of finding a parking place. I drove around another area that was fairly close.... no luck.... gave up and decided it was still early enough, I could walk from where my building is,... drove around that lot and another lot a few times,... no luck,... I gave up. I parked in a metered spot. 2hr limit, 5c for 3mins. (Remember that $50.00 parking permit I paid for?????????) Sigh. I fed that darned meter enough to get me 1hr 50min. Off I went. The Admin building was a good hike from where I was. Was glad to get that done and over with though.... you should see all the places that give discounts for students!! I can't wait to abuse I mean, take advantage of all of that :o) So, I ask,... "Where is the nearest book store??" She told me the building.... I looked on my map... yeah, I'm sure I really looked like a dork today,... wandering around aimlessly with my map in hand.... and of course the building was on the OTHER side of where I was.... and even further from my class building. SIGH. Someone wants me to get some exercise huh??? I headed over there..... maybe I'll get used to all this walking :) Not like I don't need it,... so damn outta shape LOL

I wandered through the shop.... JOUR books,... sounds like what I need..... but I wasn't finding the one I thought I needed. Had to get help. Dork. The lady was very nice,.... and pointed out that it's a fairly new book, so she didn't think they had used. *groan* $40.00 for this book. Sigh. Okay..... got book in hand and got the heck outta there and headed towards my building.

Today we were to bring in our camera(s) so we could mess with them, and ask questions if we had any. The whole class period was spent going over the innards of a camera, and what each part does. Was interesting enough.... then at the last 2mins of class, he says we can pull out our cameras and take a look and what not. Uhh... yeah. Everyone got up and left LOL Oh well.

I do look forward to sitting down and going through the book and see if I can kinda learn something new before next class. One thing that he pointed out today and something I have often thought myself, is that using a camera in manual, you really have to know what you're doing.... I mean, if you're going to do pictures for someone's wedding, it needs to be like instinct to know how to set your camera up for the shot,.... you can't waste time fumbling.... I sure hope that by the time I'm done with this class that I will have that instinct. I plan to really play with the cameras this weekend and see what I can do :)

Well, kids are hungry.... just doing mac n cheese tonight. The SHELLS and cheese mind you..... for that is MUCH cheesier LOL

Back to school

Year before last, my husband bought me a super nice digital camera.... a Canon 35mm SLR. I just love the thing. Problem is, I'm such a moron that I'm too scared to take it out of automatic. It's always easier when it does it all for you right??? Why risk taking a crappy picture when you don't have to???? My real problem is that I don't understand all the photographer lingo.... aperature??? did I even spell that right?? LOL I know there's much more, but again, CLUELESS!!!! I was determined to find some sort of class to take that would teach me the great things about photography. Wouldn't it be cool to be the next Ansel Adams or something??? LOL Well, after much searching, I was coming up with nothing.

So, one day late last year,.... I did more digging, and found through the university that they had a photojournalism class. Hmm... wonder if this is what I would be looking for??? I put a call into the teacher, and spoke with him all about it. This was probably in October. After his talk, I was pretty pumped up about the class, sounded EXACTLY what I was looking for. He said he thought the class was about $300.00. Eh, not bad I guess. I was very anxious about doing this, and couldn't wait to get started.

I made some calls, and found out I needed my shot record... or at least a record of having had 2 MMR shots. HUH??? I'm nearly 37yrs old!!! SHOT RECORD? LOL Yeah right. I grew up in CA and had NO idea where to start. Mom got our shots done at the Health Dept, I called all over with no luck. I worried that this would interfere with my getting into the spring time class,.... it was getting close by this time for registering and such. Thankfully I found out that there was a clinic on campus that I could get my shot done for free!! Yay!!!!

One day in Dec I headed to the campus,.... keep in mind, I graduated in 1987 from High School and took a whole semester of Jr College the year after that, I was pretty nervous. I've never been on a University campus before. It was huge. I parked in the wrong spot and had quite the hike to the registration office. The clinic was convieintly located at the OTHER end of the campus,.... drove over there and back again (found the closer parking this time) and got everything set.... and the shot cost $5.00, can't beat that I suppose huh??? I needed to wait about a couple days to get into the system then I would be able to enroll in the course I wanted. I left there feeling very excited!!! I couldn't wait. I also stopped in and got my parking permit,..... you know that darned thing costs $50.00!!!! Sheesh. I was going to pay for it then, but no no, it will be put on your registration bill or whatever the heck it is.... ahhh... okay.... works I guess... so at this point I'm thinking about $350.00 now right????

I'm all set!!! I think...... as Christmas draws closer,... I get a letter stating that I still need another MMR shot.... well dang, they had told me I'd be okay with just the one. I KNOW I had one at least as a kid! I couldn't call until after the holidays, and class was to start Jan 9th!!! I wasn't even enrolled in a class yet either!! I was getting worried again that I'd not make it.

Well,... finally after talking to a few people after New Years, I found that so long as I get the second shot done, I'd be fine..... and that I could get enrolled now and did just that over the phone!! I was all set for my first class,.... and it was only like 4 days away!!!! Wow, talk about cutting it close huh???

Mon. Jan. 9th!!! I was fairly nervous that morning. Something so new and exciting for me. I was up and ready to go in no time!! I got there in plenty of time and even had an easy time finding where the building was (using the map of course) but my 30mins being early was spoiled due to driving around the lot a few dozen times trying to find a place to park!!! Did I mention that it costs $50.00 for the permit??? You'd think I'd have a place to park for that huh??? However, such was NOT going to be the case. I found a spot acrossed the street aways,.... worked just fine. I got into class with about 10mins to spare. I entered the small room, with like 30 chairs and 3 other students sitting there waiting. They were SOOO young.... I felt so old LOL I found a desk and sat down and waited nervously. While sitting there I overheard a girl talking about her courses,... one of which was horseback riding!!! WHAT???? A CLASS FOR HORSEBACK RIDING???? NO WAY!!!!! I totally want to do that :o)

The room filled slowly,.... I think by the time the teacher walked in, there were maybe 6 desks open??? I also saw that I was the only one who brought their camera,..... dork. He took roll,... I'm not sure where he is from, but he has an accent, and assured us his feelings would not be hurt if we had to ask him to repeat anything. He passed out the class syllabus, which we spent the rest of the class time reading over. He even picked on individuals to read the paragraphs. I found this amusing. Didn't we outgrow that in grade school???? I learned that I did need to enroll for the lab,... this would be how we would submit our work. I really hoped that I'd need not take it, as the hours conflict with being a mom/wife!! I spoke with the teacher at the end of class who directed me to the lab instructor. I really thought, why not get the software, do what needed to be done, and upload the picture to the school server???? Sounds easy enough. Well, apparently the school's server is to its own,.... outsiders can't get in????? Maybe it's me, but that seems odd. So, now to figure out how to work this out. Seemed pointless to take the class and not turn in work ya know?? Even if the plan was to audit the course.

So, yes, that was day one. It went fairly well I thought. I was pretty excited about the upcoming projects, and even pretty curious about how the lab worked. Just the matter of figuring out how to make the lab work for us. Hubby and I talked and figured we would just try and work around it some how.

Wed. Jan 11th 2nd class.... that morning, I made some calls,.... got enrolled for the lab and talked to a girl who was going to help me out with the payment deal. I had no clue at this time how much I was going to have to pay for these classes. I knew that the lab wasn't much, I thought it was around $20.00. I didn't have my student ID or anything,..... I knew nothing. Such a noob. She gave me my student ID number, and showed me around online how to view all my information. Would you believe that the lab is only $10.00??? Not bad huh??? Makes up for the $612.00 for all the OTHER CRAP!!! The photography class is like $424.00 and then they throw in all these other fees,...... it's almost like looking at your phone bill. What is this for??? and this???? she tells me how I can get into the games free as a student.... well, great, only I hate football, and basketball..... we have a great gym here as well.... eh,... that might be something I would consider doing for about 5mins.... really, it was pretty silly. Oh and don't forget that $50.00 parking permit too!!! Sheesh. You could say that my bubble was burst then. How could we possibly do this????? Then she told me they do have a pymt option. Ohh???? This sounded good!! She explained and it sounded doable. I was ready to head to class,.... poked my head into the bedroom where hubby was sleeping, to let him know I was headed out. I said "You remember how I thought the class was going to be about $300.00??" "yeah,.... it's more?" "yeah" "how much more??" "a lot.... but we'll talk about it when I get home" Nice of me huh???? At this point, I figured, hey, I've not paid anything yet..... if we need to wait on the class, so be it. Kinda throws the horseback riding class out the window though doesn't it????

This session was basically the history of photography. I took a few notes,.... listened along. He told us that next Weds we needed to bring in our cameras and we would look them over and ask questions or whatever. Cool. I was smarter this time, and didn't bring mine with me. I spoke with the lab guy again,... he said that if I can't make the lab time that I registered for, I could attend one of the other times, NO problem. That was very reassuring. I was a bit worried about that.

Got home and talked to hubby about everything. The pymt deal was cool... but we talked more about other options. The girl I spoke with mentioned a Pell Grant, but we both felt sure that that couldn't happen. I remembered that his company had some sort of deal, but had no clue how that worked. He said he would look into it. The next day he talked with one girl, who was sure all you had to do was fill out a paper and provide your grade/receipts and you get reimbursed. Hmmm..... he tried to get in touch with the girl that actually handled that part of it all, but I guess she was out of the office that day.

Today I called,.... as I have class tomorrow and want to know what the heck we're gonna do. That's exactly how it works, only I've gotta have a 2.0+ gpa. That's rough LOL So, looks like I'm going to school LOL We talked about maybe an Assoc. in Photojournalism,.... but we'll see. Right now this class should hold everything I want to know. I would really love to feel confident in taking good pictures of other peoples kids or couples or whatever. One day having a nice studio??? Never can tell right???? Anyhow, my plan is to blog about this class,.... it's a 3mo long class,... with 10 assignments. I will post the photo's that I submit to the teacher and even share with you his grade/comments (if there are any?) Exciting stuff huh???

Well, my first post was much wittier,... which for me is rare,.... but blogger ate it or something :( I will never learn to cut/copy before I try and publish/send something :( Sigh.

What does your birthdate mean??

I got this dealie from over at Fizzy's blog, I thought it was cute, especially about what it said about my having a mind like an artist, even if I haven't developed it yet :o) I think that's pretty true!!! I will explain further in the next post.

I had meant to post this the day of my Bday.... forgot of course LOL *published to blog on Feb. 2nd*

Your Birthdate: January 29

You have the mind of an artist, even if you haven't developed the talent yet. Expressive and aware, you enjoy finding new ways to share your feelings. You often feel like you don't fit in - especially in traditional environments. You have big dreams. The problem is putting those dreams into action. Your strength: Your vivid imagination Your weakness: Fear of failure Your power color: Coral Your power symbol: Oval Your power month: November

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Happy Holidays!

Yeah, it's been awhile huh? I never was any good with a journal LOL

Can you believe it's 2006?? Wow. I sure can't. Just feel like the year has flown by. All said and done, it's been a pretty good year. Full of the usual ups n downs, but I would like to think many more up's than downs :o) That's a good thing in my book.

Thanksgiving was really nice, went to DH's folks for food.... we eat early there, then come home and fix our own dinner, so we were plenty stuffed by the end of the day :o)

This Christmas oldest DD and DS went to their dads. I really hate when they're gone for Christmas. I can handle Thanksgiving, but Christmas just makes me feel lost without all my kids here. We did most of our shopping earlier than usual this year, so that did help. We had stuff on layaway and got it out before Christmas week!! That's like rare for us. Last few years it's been day before Christmas shopping.... well, close to that anyhow LOL I was very pleased. Plus, I found a lot of the things that youngest DD wanted, they were on the top of her list! Yup, was going to be a great Christmas for them!! Youngest DS is easy to buy for :o) Videogames, Spiderman, Pokemon.... easy easy. Inspite of oldest 2 being gone, this Christmas was really great. The fact that youngest DS was soooo into it all, just made it that much better. Both kids were thrilled with everything they got. Was a great day.

Best part was that DH was off for the next 4 days after Christmas. His schedule just landed like this, so it didn't cut into vacation days or anything. We spent the time lounging really hard :o) He got me a Nintendo DS with a ton of games, and I was totally absorbed in playing with it :o) We watched movies, slept in.... it was just wonderful. Sure hated to have it end.

New Years, I spent wrapping presents for when the older 2 return, as we do Christmas again when they get home. I had teased DH that maybe if he could sneak away at midnight he could call me :o) Yeah, it was hopeful thinking really..... and he made sure I knew that full well. His new job doesn't really allow for phone breaks like that. However,.... while I sat there wrapping, tv on watching Dick Clark do the countdown.... the phone rang right about midnight :o) This was the first New Years we were apart in the 8yrs of marriage. I was pretty sad about that,.... and when he called, it sure made me feel great :o) Just really made my whole night.

I teased him a few nights ago, as he was watching wrestling,.... he made a comment about one of the girls on the show he likes, something about her being his "diva" so I said "I thought Iwas your diva???" He had bought me my favorite coffee's early that morning,.... and reminded me that he did that special :o) Yeah, he bought my favorite morning drinks,.... but you know, that midnight phone call was more special than any coffee he could've bought.... Yup... I AM his #1 Diva :o)

Honey, if you ever find time and sit and read this,.... I love you with all my heart.