Five more days?

*faint*
I don't know where the time has gone. I guess that's about it. Meredith and Kelley, this one's for you.

*cue music*

Ok, now I get to play with spacing. Have I mentioned how much I hate this format? Or at least the nonexistent, hard to visualize tutorials for using it. I type, upload photos, they take up the space I've used for typing, I have to try and move things around in a quarter of the space that my laptop gives me...it ain't fun. It's a pain in the ass.

And now my cursor is invisible. Holy crap.

Anyway, my sweet Houdini has managed to remove his diaper without interrupting his clothing status. Impressive, I do believe. But not nearly as impressive as typing in a format that has no visible cursor and one which will require that I count to 13 to space out to move my photos in such a way that they present themselves at the end of a text. Or maybe I'll just move them to the end and hit 'delete' several times to erase the unfortunate spaces.

Arrrrggghhhh. At least he didn't pee in a vacuum cleaner today.

It's been 5 days already?

Wow. So much for my promise to blog more frequently if I got the chance to take better photos. Sorry, honey! I'll work on it! I have thought about it every day, and taken pictures every day again, which is a start.

So there are several photos here. I guess I'll just upload them and then try to post something about them. I HATE the format here, though, it's hard to space what I type to fit the photo it belongs with. Grrrrrr.

--Ok, I don't really have time for that. Kevin's due back w/the boys from karate any second and once Owen gets here and starts climbing in my chair I'm gonna lose my mind. What little bit hasn't been lost already. He has been fixated on the animals lately. Not a good thing. Pulling cats' tails, grabbing them around the middle to try and lift them (Harmony HATES having her belly touched!), screaming at the puppy every chance he gets and then sneaking his snack food to her on the side....it's been a bit much. I'm surprised they haven't all tried to rehome themselves this week.

The photo of the soup is Tom Kha Goong. I think. Anyway, it's a spicy coconut soup with shrimp. Holy cowabunga. It was so good. I finally found an Asian market close to me and got some authentic ingredients. Of course Owen was running in circles around the tiny aisles, picking up small jars of hot sauce and packages of noodles...the people inside were laughing. I swear, I held on to him as tightly as I could and I'd let go ONLY to put something inside my basket quickly and ZOOM. Off he was, fast as a rocket. At least he didn't pour oil or break anything.

The rest are the boys, in various states throughout the past couple of days. I was especially proud that I got laughing smiles out of Owen TWICE. *insert happy jig* Not sure if it'll work again in the future, but hey, small victories still count.

September 12

Just in case I don't get around to finishing the photos, I have at least one ready to post for today. He is SO HARD to get a picture of. I have the cutest one of his little smirk, but it's blurry :(












Ok, I have a moment. I've probably had a few, but this is one I'm taking advantage of. I took these photos earlier. Owen decided he'd give the pantry a test pull and whaddaya know, someone left it unlatched. So he went digging for gold. He found a box of dried cereal and tried putting some out for the puppy as well as eat it himself.

And Zach...so tired of being forced into slavery. Pout, baby, POUT!

September 11

Hard to believe, 8 years ago I was shocked and horrified at what was happening in Manhattan...the terror inflicted on our nation by a group of religious, power hungry zealots. I don't blame the Muslims or those of the Islam faith, I blame the twisted, evil leaders who use their faith and wield it as a weapon. It can happen in any religion if you are good enough at suppressing your followers. Even the good old 'Christians' have had their fair share of death and destruction under the guise of faith.

Anyway, I've taken a few photos today but I haven't uploaded them. My wrists are really paying the price of holding the camera + heavy lens + large flash...lots of nerve pains and zings through my fingers. But I do have a couple more from yesterday, so here you go :) I know I need a lot of work yet, but I don't feel so hopeless taking the camera out for indoor shots.

September 10

It's here! It's here! And of course I'm playing with it before reading the instructions. I did actually download a pdf file of the instruction manual and glance through it while waiting and watching the clock for the UPS man. Yes, I ordered it to be shipped overnight...but it made sense. Amazon had it for 30 bucks cheaper than Best Buy. But if Best Buy had had it in the store, I would have driven over myself and picked it up. Adding the overnight shipping cost was still less than if I'd bought it at Bestbuy...so...I think my rationalization makes perfect sense ;)

A few quick photos...I have a lot to learn with it, but I'm already thrilled that I took these INDOORS with no big flash glare on anyone's face and no blurring of the motion, either.

Ummmm, I'm still here....

Yeah, yeah...I'm a slacker. I know it. It's been a little hectic since school started, Zach has a total ....er....very strict woman....as a teacher, although I'm hoping that things will settle down soon. She'd be great as a college professor, perhaps, but for 3rd grade her standards and grading system are pretty over the top. So between homework, karate, puppy insanity and general Owen death prevention, it's been busy.

I have taken pics here and there and honestly I don't even know if I've uploaded all the ones I had planned. I'll check after I post....
Kevin celebrated the start of football season by DVRing the Gators' game. He tried to listen to it during dinner but I vetoed that. I DID dress all the little ones in Gator apparel. Even Holly.

I am hoping to get moving on more photos soon. I have been pretty discouraged that I couldn't get pics as good as I'd like, especially indoors (which is where we are most of the time as it's an infernal blaze of heat as soon as you step outside) and since the light is low, and Owen is in constant motion, I've given up getting many candid shots of him. And it kills me because he's so cute and does so many cute things...but getting the camera, setting it up, getting it to capture him with a slow shutter speed (and I've tried so many combos of shutter, aperture and ISO)...it's made me feel less than adequate. HOWEVER....this gal told me what she does...and I'm copying her. I ordered a flash for the camera today! (and I'm copying her black frames as well hahaha). I'm hoping it gives me good results indoors. I will probably never have the artistic inclinations that she does, but I can at least try to improve on what I'm doing thus far.

Merry Christmas to me! (thanks, Honey!)