Coming Out

No, this is not what most people now days think of when someone is talking about "coming out". I am talking (or typing) about my favorite season......Spring. It's when the snow melts, the baby animals are being born, the flowers start blooming, everything starts to green and the trees start to bud. A couple years ago, I planted one of my favorite trees. The Pussy Willow - weeping variety. I will call it Tom (you'll find out why as you read on). It is awesome in the summer when it's full of leaves and in the fall as the leaves change colors. But I think it's at it's best in the spring as the buds or "catkins" as they are called, start to come out of their shell. What exactly are pussy willows? Click here to learn more. In doing some research on the origins of the name, I came to discover that they are dioecious. Which means there are both male and female of the species. The male of the species, produces the showier "catkins". Mine is male, hence the name Tom {as in tom cat :)}. Tom has been doing a strip tease lately and exposing his "catkins". Here's a couple awesome photos of Tom "coming out"

Brothers

Sisters

My sisters Michelle and Cristie got all of the creative and artistic talents out of us four siblings.

My talents are in music

and in the kitchen
.

However, over the past few years, I've developed an addiction to the computer. More specifically, as mentioned in a previous post, to digital scrapbooking.
I've had a ball going through old pictures I either physically have or scanned photos I've borrowed from relatives. Recently, I've rediscovered some of them and now intend to use them as blackmail.

Here's the latest with my older sister Mushy Oatmeal. I think this was 1st grade (but I'm not positive).

More Photoshop Magic

Grandma Beth

HI

The Fam

On a recent trip to the North Pole, aka Moscow, Idaho, I got the chance to spend a week with my mom and help her with her blog. The stories she posts are fascinating to read and are so well told it's like you were there with her. While on my trip, she came across an old letter written by her father to her mother circa 1951 and has been "blogging" about it. After returning home, I received an email from her requesting some pictures I used to make a collage for hers years ago. She wanted them to go with her stories. I had to search several boxes of storage, but I found them. Here's a preview.

Teenage Drama Queen

Wishing my niece Sarabeth my best wishes on her 13th birthday!

Mom was right!

"You can't depend on your judgment when your imagination is out of focus." -- Mark Twain

After reading a recent post on Livin' Til I Die & Other Fantasies, I was inspired to dig out my old photo albums and embark on a quest for the truth. After going through many the pages of pictures, laughing, crying, and reminiscing I come to discover MOM WAS RIGHT! Babe was not a babe! LOL! The poor thing. Here's a photo circa 1987. Judge for yourself. Just remember to use your imagination. She really was a wonderful cat.

Boise Foothills

What a beautiful morning! It was not snowing and we actually had blue skies for a change. This is a shot of Bogus Basin and the Boise foothills. Can you believe their going to destroy this view by putting in another shopping mall? How rude!

Love Song

More Videos

scroll to bottom of page to pause music player before playing video

Sandee

What Sandee Means

You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong. You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know. You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are balanced, orderly, and organized. You like your ducks in a row. You are powerful and competent, especially in the workplace. People can see you as stubborn and headstrong. You definitely have a dominant personality. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Sarabeth

My latest Photoshop creation

Hildie

---

See her sister Maggie Mae here

It's only snow

Ok, so it hasn't snowed like this for many many years. Even the cats don't quite know how to take it. I was testing the video function on my camera by recording the falling snow. I had the back door wide open while doing this, freezing my butt off in the process. The cats usually run as fast as they can to get in before I stop them, but this day they didn't even budge. The video itself isn't very exciting, but looking at the cats makes me laugh every time. They just sit there! Watch and enjoy!

Snow Cats!

August Rush

Went to see August Rush yesterday with Michelle and Ashley. It was awesome!!! Get the soundtrack here.

Snowflakes

Here's one of my favorite quotes:

"Snowflakes are one of nature’s most fragile things, but just look what they can do when they stick together."

It just so happened we got a few flakes this morning. Over 2 inches in about 1 1/2 hours. It was not fun driving home from work in it. However, I just happened to have my camera with me and took some good shots.

Secondhand Smoke

Cars or Bars?
Would your lungs be worse off if you spent a few hours in a car, windows cracked, with someone who’s smoking or if you whiled away an evening in a smoky bar? Again, the answer may seem counterintuitive. Seems the air in a car, after a few cigarettes, can be even worse than the air in a smoky bar -- even with the windows open a bit. So now you know what to say the next time your pal (or MOM) wants to light up on a road trip :)
courtesy of Real Age

Resolutions

"Love is like a butterfly,
it goes where it pleases
and it pleases wherever it goes."

My New Years resolution is to be like a butterfly................................

The Magic Of Photoshop

I bought the Photoshop Elements program several months ago and I am just now starting to learn how to use it. Unlike Mom and her camera, reading the instruction manual has not helped. When I first bought it, I thought it would be neat to make different collages of all the photos I have taken of our yearly trips to the Oregon coast and of family gatherings. I installed the program and thought "no problem". I've used other photo programs before with no problem, but this one was very different. I skimmed through the manual, but there was so much information, it was confusing. Then I thought maybe I could figure it out without the manual. WRONG! I'm fairly computer savvy, but this program really got to me. So I gave up trying and that was that. Until.... Thanksgiving. I had taken all these photos of the family and there were so many good ones to share. They couldn't stay hidden on the computer forever. Yeah, I published some on an on-line photo album site, but that is so impersonal. I wanted them to be more personalized and have more meaning. I decided one day to use some of my computer skills and put together a DVD of Carter for Eric and Jennifer for Christmas. I got all the pictures uploaded to the computer and "created" a DVD....music included. But it needed and "Title" page. I contacted my sister Michelle to create something for me. She has, however, created all the headers for all our families blogs. I asked her how she created them and she told me she used the Photoshop Elements program. The same one I had given up on several months earlier. We talked about it and discovered we had similar troubles with the instructions. She also said she took an online tutorial for digital scrap booking, using Photoshop. She created the page and emailed it to me along with the link for her "class" and several websites that sold digital kits. I did a lot of research with those links and several others I found, but didn't want to pay for classes. So.......I confronted this program that had scared me away all those months ago. I bought a couple different kits and went at it. I clicked on this and clicked on that. This was easy! Why did it scare me away before? I didn't need any classes. All I needed was patience and a little practice. I've done a few simple layouts using simple techniques including my own header for my blog. But today I tried a couple of different elements of the program and turned

this.......

Into this.......

I hope you like it. TTFN..............