Noah's Bearded Dragon

We took Noah to the pet store Go Lizards to pick out his birthday present. He has wanted a bearded dragon for a couple of years now. I hope he is ready to take care of it. These things get pretty big. He will be full grown in about a year. We had one happy boy when we left the pet store.

Oz Museum

We took the scenic way home from Manhattan and it took us through Wamego where the Wizard of Oz museum is. We stopped and went through the museum. It's not huge but it had quite a bit of stuff and lots of tidbits about the movie.

Sonic Limeade

I have pretty much spent all day Wed and Thurs working on the computer putting together our family cruise scrapbook on shutterfly. I can't seem to get it done at home so that was my project while Brian was in class. Mid afternoon I really needed a drink so I ventured out to Sonic and got a cherry limeade. That got me through the rest of the day. And I'm almost done with the scrapbook.

K-State

After Brian got done with classes we drove around to see some of the town.  We saw K-State University, Aggieville and I went to the Dusty Bookshelf bookstore.  The evening activity for the group was bowling but I didn't take any pictures of Brian bowling.

Manhattan, KS

I went with Brian to Manhattan, KS  to the Heart of America ICC annual meeting.  He has classes and meetings and I came just to hang out for a few days.  And if you couldn't guess, we are staying at the Clarion.  (which by the way, use to be the Holidome and its the same hotel we stayed at 10 years ago when we went over for Roberts funeral)

The Mower

Time to get the riding lawnmower out again. With the rain and warm weather it was time to mow. It doesn't look like much but it gets the job done.

The Hunger Games

I'm trying really hard to read this book. Everyone that has read it says its a great book. The movie came out last week and I want to go see the movie but only after I read the book. If I would sit and read it during the day I'm sure I could get done with it, but I read when I go to bed and I go to sleep too fast and can't get much read. I WILL finish the book.

My Hometown

We went home for the week-end to see Pops and Granny.  Pops drove us around for 6 hours on Sat. so I could take pictures and get more practice.

Jentry and Chick-Fil-A

Jentry and I did several errands this morning so I gave her the choice of where she wanted to eat lunch.  She wanted to go where her Daddy works, Chick-fil-a.

One of the first pictures with my new lens.  Got some learning to do.

New Lens

SO EXCITED. Got a new lens that I have been wanting. Molly let me play with hers a little and I decided I really did want one. Hopefully I will learn how to use it to get good pictures. Time will tell.

Taco Soup

It was a cool, rainy evening so Brian made a pot of taco soup. It was really tasty with the sour cream and tortilla strips.

As you can tell, just a routine day with nothing too exciting going on. 

Grandbaby on the Way

Our daughter-in-law Amy, with our 8th Grandbaby due in June.

Struggled with the lighting on this one so just thought I would go with the silhouette look.

Raindrops

It started raining mid morning and it is suppose to continue until Thursday. Thought I would try my hand at raindrops.  I was pleased with the results but I'm sure there is room for improvement.

Molly the Photographer

Brian drove me, Molly and Geoff around to several different places so we could practice taking pictures. He was SO paitent with us.

He waited while we wandered ever so slowly through Loose Park. He took us to Kauffman Gardens and didn't hurry us at all. He then drove us to a few places downtown and was willing to stop when we saw something we wanted to take a picture of.

We ended up in the west bottoms for the last hour of picture taking

It was great to be able to get to practice and continue to learn. We had a really good time. Thanks Brian!
I took over 300 pictures, and some that I really liked but I thought this picture really represented our day so I chose it for my project picture.

Expressions By Grace

We didn't do anything special to celebrate St Patricks Day. We did take Blake, Grace and Gage to a new park fairly close to our house that we had never been to before.

This picture is a little dark but I loved the expression, and the sunlight on the side of her face.  Still learning.

Cross Stitch Floss

Molly and I went to Topeka to the cross stitch store. The way they display the overdyed floss is so colorful.  We went to see what was new and of course I came home with a new project.  Not like I don't have any at home already, that I could work on.

MNU Basketball - NAIA Tournament

MNU mens basketball team played in the first round of the NAIA tournament in downtown Kansas City at Municipal Auditorium. We went down for the game and I knew I wanted a picture of the ouside of the really old auditorium. The name is etched in the front of the building but it was really hard to get it to show up in the picture. It was even hard to read it in person.

We didn't come out as winners in the end. 

Full Bloom

In full bloom. We have had record high temps for this time of year. Yesterday is was 74 and today it was 82.

I promise, no more bradford pear tree pictures.

Brooklynne Sewing

The kids are on spring break and Brooklynne was wanting to sew on her machine.  This is her own little sewing machine that her Aunt Kelley gave her.  We got her a charm pack and she sewed the squares together to make a quilt for her American Girl doll.  She did ALL the sewing by herself and this was only the second time she had used her machine.   She got the quilt top done and is ready to put it together and finish.   She was so proud and I was proud of her.

Bud Opened

The first buds popped out today with above average temps.

Chocolate Pudding Cake

After we had mexican for lunch I needed some chocolate. I made Granny Hunts chocolate pudding cake. Haven't made it in a few years. It was just as good as I remembered it being.

Quilt Group

It was quilt day at the church.  We have a quilt group that gets together once a month.  I worked on my Kansas City Star block of the month.

Kids Swimming

The kids spent the night with us and we wanted to do something fun and different.  We took them swimming at the community center in Overland Park.  They had a blast.  After 3 hours they were pretty wiped out.

Budding Tree Update

The bradford pear tree is just about to bud out.  Its a little early but the weather has been so mild, the trees think its spring already.

Twins

Joycelyn had her twins yesterday.  Lucia Wren weighed 5 lbs, 3 ozs and was 17 inches long, Remy Mae weighed 5 lbs, 9 ozs and was 18 inches long.  We went to the hospital to see them and we each got to hold one.  They are so tiny but so cute.  Good job Joycelyn (and Nick).

Windy

It was a warm day but we had 40 mph winds all day.  Coming home from the ballgame we stopped and took a picture of the flag being blown straight out

Peanut M&Ms

I read a photography blog pretty much ALL day long at work.  I did do some work but the majority of my time I was reading tips, ideas, challenges and reading old blog posts.  The more I read, the more I want to learn.  Toward the end of the day, I got my camera out and experimented a little with the M&M jar on my desk.  This is a first attempt at full manual picture taking.  Lots of room for improvement but at least I am branching out.

Carpet Samples.

After church we made another trip to the carpet store to choose yet another carpet sample.  Eventually I'm sure we will find what we are looking for, just seems like it is taking a long time.  Its hard to match carpet with furniture when the furniture is at one store and the carpet is at another.  This sample is in the running as a pretty good choice.

Carter Reading

 Carter is SO excited that he is learning to read.  Last week he told me he read a "whole" book all by himself at school.  I told him I would make the same deal with him as I did with his brother and sister, that I will buy all the books he wants as long as he is reading them.  Since the book that he read was Biscuit, he wanted to go get another Biscuit book.  I met them at Barnes and Noble and he picked out two new books.  Its very exciting to this grandma to have reading grandchildren since their daddy wasn't a reader.  I hope it lasts.

Fluke Snow Storm

Not a great picture but you can at least see the snow shower we were getting mid morning. This was pretty amazing since just yesterday we set a record high.  It was 70 degrees.  It snowed really hard and some of the flakes were huge.  It snowed long enough to get a little white on the roofs and grass but just as soon as it quit, it was all gone.  Thats weather in Kansas for ya.

Grace

The kids were spending the night so I thought I would play a little bit with lamp lighting.  I like the way it highlights the side of Grace's face.  Not real happy with the exposure but I'm still learning