Friday, May 30, 2008

So I just finished watching P.S. I Love You...

I hated it. I. Hated. It.

I read the book last week, and it was an okay book. The writing didn't knock my socks off...I felt like I was reading an 8th grader's writing. It was just amateurist. So I thought perhaps the movie would be better. Someone had said how awesome of a show it was, and some people had said on-line that the show had made them laugh, and cry, and feel sorrow, etc. etc. etc. And perhaps if I hadn't read the book first I might have enjoyed the movie.

BUT...

The movie did not follow the book AT ALL. And I mean AT ALL!!!!! She had to buy a bedside lamp, that was the first letter. Other than that, the movie was a totally different movie...

Here are a few of the differences:

The movie took place in NYC. The book in Ireland. Holly grew up by the beach there. She did have to sing at kereoke (I don't know how to spell that), but it wasn't in her mother's bar, it was in Daniel's bar. She had two brothers in addition to her sister that was in the movie, and her dad had not left her mother. Her inlaws didn't come to the funeral because they were traveling, or something. They didn't just stay in Ireland and they were snoots. Holly had gone through several jobs in the years previous to Gerry dying, and they were all secretarial jobs. Nothing at all was mentioned about her being a real estate agent. Designing shoes had nothing to do with it. Gerry did send Holly and her friends on a trip, but it was to Spain, to a nice tropical beach, not to Ireland. Oh, the list goes on and on!

Not my favorite movie at all!!! And that's my rant for the night! :)

You're going to get sick of them, but here are more pictures of flowers!

I didn't realize that the botanical gardens here has a little pond with water lillies in it.
This bee picture was totally cool. I was trying to get a picture of the larger bee as it crawled literally around inside the yellow parts of the flower. I snapped one picture and it LOOKED at me...turned it's head and look at me. Then this little bee came flying into the flower and the larger be gave it a little poke, or whatever it's doing here in this picture. Then it flew off!



I loved the pink, red and yellow of this flower. And I really like the 2nd of the two pictures. The top one has only one little tiny bit of focus in it. It is soooo hard to hand hold the camera and take a sharp picture!

Some folks on ILP (http://www.ilovephotography.com/) were talking about how to take pictures of water droplets. I gave it a try, but I have a lot of learning to do with it!

Ballet and a Boy With his Cars

Ballet has become a love of BayLea's...she really does a good job of it! She has a recital coming up on June 7th...she has two of them...one at 2:00 and one at 7:00. Full makeup, hair in a bun (kind of hard when she only has about 12 strands of hair), cute costume! I think the rules are a little strict for a child this age, but oh well. I'm thinking it's probably not too different at the other studios in town, although I may look around next year. This weekend, the plan is to take some picture of her in her costume.


Breccan loves all things cars. He loves his Cars t-shirt, his Cars crocs, his toy cars, and above ALL ELSE, he loves the movie, Cars. I've never seen the entire movie...every time I sit down to watch it with him, a new part I haven't seen is on. Just the other day, I saw the part where the car LOOKS LIKE Jay Leno!!! Amazing what they can do with computers! Anyway, I really liked the way Breccan was lining up his cars on this day. It was the first time I'd seen him do that!

Sunday, May 25, 2008

More Flowers!

I finally got the chance to take a few more macro shots...boy, it's hard...that depth of field is so shallow that if I move just a bit as I take the picture, I've lost the focus! And when I took these, I had the beautiful background noise of my children waiting in the truck with Jery. They wanted out too, to help me I guess. Anyway, this is one flower I felt like turned out nicely. I've cropped them into different angles. I would love to have any input anyone has on whether you like them. I'm definately learning this, and I would like to know if they are pleasing to look at.


Jam Session

Boy, am I behind! These pictures are from the Jam Session at the Moose Lodge last weekend. It was a fundraiser for the wife of one of the musicians. I have pictures of most of the musicians who were there, but I don't really have permission to post their pictures (so dad why don't you ask your buddies if I can post them to my blog!?)

We had a really fun time. Jery and I did a little dancing, Jamie and Tina came by for a while, and the kids were very well behaved! I even got a VERY nice compliment from a lady who was there. She said that my kids were very cute and that they looked very happy and that we just looked like a happy little family. That made me feel really good!















Thursday, May 22, 2008

Pictures from Minneapolis last summer...

I took these pictures from the Stone Bridge in Minneapolis last summer. With the wonders of Photoshop, they turned out to be some pretty cool pictures. Josh's company, the Home Builders of the Twin Cities, paid me some money for them and he had them enlarged and they hang on the walls of his office. Pretty cool, huh? The skyline is in his reception area, and his receptionist told Josh it was "PIMP", which I'm assuming means cool!
This bridge is actually the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis. I took this photo about a week before it happened. At first I really liked the red one, but now I think my favorite is the one below.

Swim Trip to Ouray, Colorado

We headed to Ouray for an overnight trip. This is one of the truly most beautiful places ever. A tiny little town tucked between mountains. Most of my scenic pictures aren't the greatest because I took them as we drove down the highway!

The evening we got there we walked down Main to dinner. I think we ate at the Coachlight, but I can't ever remember the name. It was good food and it was loud enough to take in two loud kids!

I think this picture is funny. Look at how they're both posing...It's almost identical!



BayLea let me have a nice picture of the two of us if I would make a face like in the next one. I'm not sure why I have that goofy smile on when all she wanted was crossed eyes. I'm not sure if I have any more teeth I can show...

And here is Breccan and Jery's goofy faces...two peas in a pod!


And now we're at the pool...Breccan and BayLea are both water lovers.



Cousin Leah is great with the kids. Ethan and Jason went with us to the pool but by the time I got my camera out, they had headed downtown to walk around.





This is the view from the pool. Stunningly beautiful, isn't it?

"No, I won't look at mommy!" This is Breccan's typical response to me saying "Hey, Breccan, look at mommy!"
Below are a couple more images of the area around Ouray. I'm not the best scenic photographer...I don't want to work to get the shot. It has to be from where ever I might be standing at the time I want a shot. Or in the case of the first one, from the car as we drove into town!

Yes, the town tilts like this. My camera was level!
We really had a nice time. We've decided that when we stay in a hotel, we're not even going to TRY to get the kids to bed on time. Whenever we're ready we'll all go to bed. Otherwise, it's just a huge fight.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

My Goofy Mom and Dad

Okay, so all I wanted was a picture of them together at the Ouray pool but I think dad decided to get a little goofy. I can't see what he's doing to mom here, and I probably don't want to know! :) But aren't they cute? In my opinion they really are the perfect couple. Oh, they have their moments when they bicker like everyone, but when it comes right down to it, you know they love each other. Been married 48 years and counting!!!