What "great" is.

Hi Peach,

The Secret to doing anything great is to first determine what "Great" is. Then you determine how the doing will get you there. Are there things you loved about other's photos that you thought where "great"? For me it's a feeling captured, and sometimes the artsiness or creativity in the angle which forces a viewer to think from a different perspective. So only photos which do that for ME are great to me. Art is tough like that. What is great to you? Do you like the brighter colors or the sharper contrast? then you can become a great photo editor. maybe not witty or intelligent, maybe a bit ethereal, but hopefully enough commonsensical that it helps.

-James P. Pirate

What is great... I've been thinking about that a lot lately. I can tell you WHO is great, but I'm not sure I know WHY. Pardon the rambling as I try to figure it out.
Let's see I like when photos are not blurry... no when the subject of the photo is not blurry. When there are several layers to the picture. When it tells a story. sometimes.
I like unique lighting and seeing sunbeams. I like bold colors. I like sets of pictures when you can't tell what the subject is in the first picture but it comes into focus or into perspective by the end of the set.
Great photographers can choose what comes out blurry and what is in focus. They can umm... I'll have to think about it more.

They KNOW what they are doing when they take a picture, how to get the desired result without closing their eyes and hoping for a good picture to turn out.

I can do PHOTOS!!

The story goes that I took pictures and stuff at the wedding and I thought they were pretty decent. But then I saw some of the other pictures that were taken. Much to my shame I realized that the pictures I took and showed off were not very good. Since I like to take pictures I wanted to do better. I was thinking I'd have to go take a class so I could take a good picture. But that requires money and time... and I have little to none of either.

Sigh.

But then I was playing around with my online picture program, Picasa. I can do all sorts of cool things. See the before and after pictures. Now I can be proud of some of the pictures I took. (I have also realized that I like nature and still life shots MUCH better.) They are arranged un-edited above the edited versions.

Quiet as a hummingbirds chirp...

Or in other words not quiet at ALL!!

Hmmm I don't have much for that, but I thought it made a nice blog post title. :)

On Saturday we had a full day. In the morning Alicia and Jaedyn and I went to a Woman's Conference. It was really great. Then we went to the park.




We played and after James' group left we walked to the Snowpetal Garden. There were two other families taking spring pictures with babies. One was 9 months old and she was playing with the petals. the other was like two weeks old and getting his glamour shots with mom. We kept hearing this wierd noise and it took the boys a while with their sharp trees to find this:
which turns out to be this little guy:

A little ruby-throated hummingbird.

Then we dropped Jaedyn with some sitters (thanks James and Alicia) and went to Supercross. That was awesome.
With Bean, Pam and some of their friends.

Spring in Washington

I took a walk at Bellevue's Downtown Park today. I took many beautiful pictures that can be found here. Please look at them and comment.

I was going to post some of my favorites here and was just about to when Jessey started hissing and meowing. We went to see what was going on and we met this little friend, just out our back door.

Quigley Quibbler April 2009

Scott and our driveway...
The view from our apartments...
Scott and Jaedyn with 'Bean' and Holly Nault, Scott's cousin and their baby.
Jaedyn and the beautiful blanket from Maris.

Read on for more...

So much to write about! We have started writing down our favorite event from the week so we would remember what happened from one newsletter to the next. Here are a few of our favorite things:

Arren- Getting our home put together!! It's still a work in progress, but of the four favorites I have come up with two of them are about getting our home unpacked, organized and nice. We got a table! For the first time since we have been married (4.5 years) we have a table -in the dining room- that we can sit at and eat from. Our laid-back lifestyle of eating on the couch or at the computer desk was working great, but now that we have a baby and a table, well, I feel like we are on our way to being a "real" family. Next we'll have to buy a house for our table...and get a dog, because that is what "real" families have (so I have said).
The second thing was getting decorations and little furniture pieces to decorate and store with. Scott's parents have some items in storage that they are giving to the kids in town, so after 'shopping' at their place, we came home with a little Bombay chest, some fire irons, our table and six chairs, a rug and about a millionDVD's. With our DVD collection from Dallas, we now have about 15 feet of DVD's. WOW! We also went to Ikea and got matching picture frames and got some prints from the LDS Bookstore to supplement what we had already. It's looking quite nice I think. I wanted to get some green accents for our living room but it is becoming really hard to find the right shade for pillows and a throw and curtains, not to mention a rug! Scott is fixing up one of our computers to be an entertainment center to watch movies and or TV on. So now in addition to a traditional dining room (complete with a table) we will have a traditional living room (complete with entertainment center)!!
My next two favorite things from the past two weeks are all about food. Eating food, with friends to be exact. Conference Weekend we went to our new sister-in-law's parents for Sunday Dinner. It was awesome. Great food, yummy dessert, good conversation and super people to share it with. TheFarrar's were so hospitable to have us over and share the last piece of asparagus and meat with us. :) I had a really enjoyable time.
Probably my all time favorite thing was Passover at the Hansen's. Maris cooked up a traditional Sedar Dinner and we dined in high style! Mav (Dave) read some traditional prayers that Maris got on-line. Their little Jacob looked up at Mav at one point and asked "Daddy, what are you even saying?" Maris also gave Jaedy a beautiful handmade (?) blanket. Jaedyn is sleeping with it as I type. This event was just perfect because I was wanting to do more for Easter. Hunting eggs is great, but not enough to commemorate the Atonement, in my opinion. So we had aSedar Dinner and played with friends, who are so absolutely awesome I can't begin to describe it and went to two Sacrament meetings on Sunday. I wanted to do aSedar myself but I had no idea how to cook lamb or where to find it, so now I have another year to figure it out. When we were at theLDS bookstore I picked up a book on having a more Christ-centered Easter. I am really excited to try it out next year and in the years to come. My idea is that Easter will become as big a holiday for us as Christmas is.

Scott- We moved up here to Washington to be closer to family and its really a whole new world. Yes, I grew up with them all but, its much different now that we are all grown and out of the house and have families of our own. One of the most impacting experiences for me this month was visiting my parent's ward to listen to my dad give a talk in sacrament meeting. He spoke on the atonement of Jesus Christ. The thing that stirred me the most was not actually the talk, but rather afterward when he sat back down and his eyes met mine from up on the stand. He gave me a smile and his whole demeanor seemed to lift and he just seemed to be filled to capacity with joy. I'm sure it didn't have anything to do with it being just me there, but my whole little family unit. Now that all of us "kids" are grown and have kids of our own we aren't really kids anymore and so the relationship that I have always known as a child-parent relationship is now a parent-parent relationship. I don't mean this with any amount of disrespect as my parents are always my parents but in many ways we are now equals and that is weird. Its a good, fun thing, but weird none the less. It isn't just the relationship between my parents that has changed its between me and my siblings as well. I say siblings....well really only James as Megan is gone and Bethany isn't exactly close by. Anyhow, having dad give me a look of gratitude for doing something as simple as taking my family to his ward and supporting him and listening to him give a talk means a lot. There was another event that I thoroughly enjoyed taking a part in but Arren already claimed it so I'll just make a brief mention of it. We had a traditional Jewish passover diner (with all the recitations and all) with a dear mission companion of mine and his family. It was really neat. We had a laid-back (as per instruction not to make a big deal of it) celebration for mom at James and Ate's (call her what you want, but to me she is Ate [translation: older sister]). I was rather worried about our DVD collection as it mostly consists of romantic-comedy and action movies with the vast majority of them rating at PG-13 and definitely not suitable for my daughter. Side note: she is very stinkin cute. Note to self: buy a double barrel 12 gauge. Mom and Dad just bequeathed upon us a collection of DVDs that dwarfs our own collection and is %95 children's movies. Not all of which are Disney. I was trying to figure out how to get a hold of a lot of the classics I grew up on like The Sound of Music and Bed Nobs and Broomsticks. Its very exciting to have them in our house now. We have been watching a lot of them... gotta warm 'em up! ;)
(edit here are some of the other favorite things he mentioned: Taking a family walk at Marymoor Park, finding out that he does NOT have to go through school again to practice massage in Washington, and going to his cousin's baby's blessing.)

Jaedyn- I asked her but my Adamic is not what it once was, and the answer was lost in translation. She is growing. We weighed her at the Farrar's and she is around 11 lbs now. I hurt my shoulder somehow... probably while doing push-ups and was taking Extra-strength Excedrin for the pain.Jaedyn got really cranky and would not go to sleep even when she was exhausted . It took us about three days to remember that Excedrin has lots of caffeine in it. Lots. We have been so good at keeping caffeine out of her diet of mommy-milk that this was quite a rude introduction. My shoulder is feeling much better now and the caffeine is, should be, out of my system, but we had a rough couple of days. Other than that,Jaedyn is a smile-happy and friendly baby. She is learning so quick. When we hold her Binky in front of her, she opens her mouth for it. She smiles when she sees us, has learned to grab toys dangling in front of her and has experimented with gumming her blankets and plush toys. She is also interested in watching TV with Mommy and daddy. Uncle Miles gave me a book, On Combat, that was a good read and very informative. One of the points that Lieutenant Colonel DavidGrossman makes is about the affect / effect watching violent media has on children. I am now informed of some of the dangers it can present and we are not lettingJaedyn watch anything more exciting than Baby Einstein. She will strain to turn and watch when she hears a show and we have to keep an eye on her to make sure she is facing us like she should be.Jaedyn is not a huge fan of bath time but puts up with it pretty well. She loves getting her diaper changed and will gurgle and wiggle and kick quite happily when she knows what is going on.

Enjoy the pictures of our home and family, it is really beautiful here.

not too much to post about

I'm just getting the house put together. I have to be creative and it is hurting my brain a little bit. Come over and give me suggestions if you'd like.

Tonight we are doing our family newsletter for FHE... I think I WILL post it here.
We are picking one or two of our favorite things each week to write about. I'm excited!

Puppy Dogs

This is Scott with Ashley's dog, who has had so many names I don't even know what to call him, but he is so cute that Scott has agreed we can get a dog if it it tiny like this.
Awww.

We still have to wait to get a house because apartments around here only let you have two pets max.
We (I) want a dog but not at the price of one of our cats.
And if I have to wait until we have a house to get a dog then I'll get a real dog then I get one.
I'm thinking German Shepherd (something that will make me feel safe while I'm home alone or taking the baby on a walk).

dream

mike had a buddy who got him an interview, i was jst fired from lennar, so i tagged along with mike, we werethere at 10 am, interviews were not until 10 pm. i offered to hold a crying baby while the girl was talking with the ceo. he told me to take w walk so i ran around the building until the interviews. by that time the room had filled up and everyone knew me. we got tyhe jobs for persistance. then something about a tree house (scott was snoring so bad it woke my up and altered the dream) then we were back (later) for mikes friends interview. he was more qualified he had looked at mikes personnel file to cnfirm and somethings about some green drink that was served in shotglasses aat the ceo's nightclub, we'd get the non alcoholic kind...ND IT SMELLED YUMMY then the baby started to cry. and here i am .. nursing and typing with one hand while i am still asleep...

Wedding

Also click HERE for a link to other pictures.

And HERE for a video of Jaedyn playing in her bouncer.

books

I stole this from a friend, who stole it from a friend, who stole it from and friend, and who started this thing anyhow? Since I too enjoy reading, I’m playing…

“The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up? Instructions: Copy and paste, then put an ‘x’ after those you have read. Tally your total at the bottom.”

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (x have it)

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (x have it)

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (x have it)

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (x have it)

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee(x have it)

6 The Bible (x have it)

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (x have it)

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell ()

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman ()

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens ()

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (x)

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy ()

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller ()

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (attemted)

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier ()

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (x have it)

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk ()

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger ()

19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger ()

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot ()

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell ()

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (x)

23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens ()

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy ()

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (x)

26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh ()

27 Crime and Punishment- Fyodor Dostoyevsky ()

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (x)

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (x)

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame ()

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy ()

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens ()

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (x have it)

34 Emma - Jane Austen (x have it)

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen (have it...have not read it yet)

36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (x have it)

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (x have it)

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres ()

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (x have it)

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne ()

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell ()

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown ()

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ()

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving ()

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins ()

46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (x have it)

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy ()

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood (x)

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (x)

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan ()

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel ( dad has it...always meant to pick it up...)

52 Dune - Frank Herbert (x)

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons ()

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (x have it)

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth ()

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon ()

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens ()

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley ()

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon ()

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez ()

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (x)

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov ()

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt ()

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold ()

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (x)

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac ()

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy ()

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding ()

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie ()

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville (attempted)

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens ()

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker ()

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnet (x)

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson ()

75 Ulysses - James Joyce ()

76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath ()

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome ()

78 Germinal - Emile Zola ()

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray ()

80 Possession - AS Byatt ()

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens ()

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell ()

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker ()

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro ()

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (x)

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry ()

87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White (x have it)

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom ()

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (x have it)

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton ()

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad ()

92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (x)

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks ()

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams (x have it)

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole ()

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute ()

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas (x)

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (x in theater??)

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (x)

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (x complete and unabridged!!)

35 and one attempted... not too bad! But I still have a bunch to read and now I have a list to choose from!

What I really wish ...

was that my posts would no longer be EATEN by blogger!!!

But what I was origionally going to write was that I wish I could upload pictures to all the applications I use, all at one time.