Finally in Naples

Kali and I finally made it to Naples late this morning. We started out last night after her class was finished and drove a couple hours before stopping for the night. Then up early this morning. Not my favorite time of day - at all. I don't typically do six o'clock in the morning. Six o'clock at night I can do all day, just not six o'clock in the morning. Interstate traffic was bad. A light rain caused big trouble. We came across a total of six major accidents. Traffic was backed up literally for miles in both directions. Not good. Needless to say - we were late arriving to the conference. At least we got there before lunch, and that was a good thing. I say "good" because today's lunch was from Panera Bread. Yummo!

We had fun debate classes today. Lots of high energy kids...whoa! Should be an interesting week :O). Tomorrow we work on Public Forum debating.

You probably won't get any more posts this week. And you definitely won't get any photos. Sorry. We are staying in a lovely hotel. A lovely hotel with stinky internet service. I am not lieing - it took over a full minute just to open my hotmail account. That didn't even include trying to read any mail. I'll be thankful to click submit on this post and just say, "have a great week! I'll be in touch Monday!"

A Visit to the Ranch

A couple days ago, Jason and Bobbie came out to eat lunch and visit the ranch. Once we got in past the horses, we fed treats to Mona and Hershey.

They seriously love treats! And they will eat treats as long as you will feed them.

Bobbie was funny. When we told her you could lay on the donkeys, or hug on them, she just plopped right onto Mona's back! The donkeys love the attention! They are so sweet and loving!

Somewhere about here, Bobbie wanted to know if Mona and Hershey knew any tricks. I told her I wanted to teach Hershey how to walk through a hula hoop. So, Kali went out to the car and got my hula hoop that I use as a prop on photo shoots, and we began.

The first thing you do is to select your target. Sorry, Hershey, but you are the smallest and most likely to fit!

Next, you terrorize, I mean catch your target so you can teach her this really cool trick!

Just look at my baby run! :O) Cracks me up!

Hershey: Save me, Mona!

You may have to practice a little diversionary tactic while your partner gets set up with a handful of treats.

Zero in on your target . . . .

. . . . bribe them with treats . . . .

. . . then begin the process!

The thought is to "treat" your way through, one body part at a time!

First leg through . . . .

. . . . second leg and torso through . . . .

. . . . come on, Hershey! . . . .

. . . . and, she's through the hoop! Whoo!Hoo! (Not as easy as it looks here, but not as hard as I figured it would be, either!)

After all that hard work, you need a little down time to relax. I know! Let's wrestle Jason to the ground! hahaha! Sorry, son! Actually, Jason can give as good as he gets, I just didn't get a picture of him doing it. I was too busy laughing!

Mona: Hey, Heshey! I think that Bobbie-girl is OK! Look at her put a good one on Jason!

Gus: I wonder if Jason needs help??? Neigh! He can handle it! but I'm here just in case!

Rascal: I don't care, just stay away from my food! and that means you, too, Mona!

Well, everyone's been loved on, played with, hugged, kissed, petted, fed, and treated! even tricked!

So let's head on home! It's time to call it a day.


This week's You Capture challenge was Photographer's Choice. To check out a whole bunch of cool photos and stories, click here.

I ♥ Faces, Balloon Theme This Week

The theme at I ♥ Faces this week is Balloons. What a fun topic! Recently I did a photo shoot with Alexis (you can see her pictures here) and we used balloons. Until . . . she accidentally let them slip away, into the sun - lol! I love this picture of her, it shows her excitement about the balloons, you can see her reflection in the purple balloon, and I caught a little solar flash of color across the balloons. We had a great time that day! To check out other balloon shots, head on over to I ♥ Faces!

A Bad Day To Be Gus

DISCLAIMER: there's a whole lot of blue and brown in these photos. I hope you're partial to blue and brown, otherwise you might want to turn back right now :).

You might be asking why it was a bad day to be Gus. (If not, that means you didn't read my title :).) A couple days prior to these photos, Mark was at the ranch doing some work and, for whatever reason, Gus kicked the trailer hitch on the jeep. Not a great move on Gus' part.

The next day we noticed limping, which continued to get worse. So, we started the process of calling in the vet, Dr. Bruey. Above you see him examining Gus' hoof.

Gus had a good bit of damage to the back of his front hoof. (There's probably a technical term for it that I don't know.) He split off a good chunk of his heel and it was twisted out to one side. As you could well imagine, Gus was not crazy about Dr. Bruey lifting and poking and prodding that section of hoof. Which leads to the above picture of Mark trying to catch Gus again :O).

Gus: Hey, Doc! Are you sure my leg's supposed to bend that way?!? Whoa, Momma!!! that hurts! (Immediately followed by some serious head-slinging by Gus!)

Gus: Well, that's a little less painful! Hey, Doc! What's that big thing sticking out of your boot?

About this time, Dr. Bruey decides some good meds would be appropriate.

You'll notice Gus' eyes start to droop. And, Dr. Bruey's little dog Tipper decided it was safe to come around.

See that big bolt cutter looking thing in the doc's boot? That's what he used to cut off the chunk of Gus' hoof that was broken. Up into the skin, not a good thing.

Before we knew it, Gus was all bandaged up and feeling no pain! Did I mention those painkiller/meds the doc gave Gus? Check this out:

and he's going . . . . . .

. . . . going . . . . .

. . . . gone!

Did you know with the proper amount of medication, you can play with a horse's mouth all you want and not get bitten? Pull on the lips, flop them back and forth, sandwich them back and forth like a clam opening and shutting its mouth, you get the general idea - lol!

Oh! Sorry, Gus!

Seriously though, Dr. Bruey was great! and Gus is feeling a lot better now. Still limping, but definitely better!

Jaslynn, What a Sweetheart!

A lot of babies have come into our lives recently. And they keep getting cuter and sweeter! Doesn't this mom look as happy as can be with her precious four month old daughter?


Jaslynn is already trying to sit up, so laying down in my basket was not her favorite thing to do that day - lol!

OK, everyone. For those of you who admired my burgundy streaks, this beautiful lady is my hairdresser, the one responsible! I wish I was brave enough to get pink streaks like she has, she looks great with pink streaks!


I have to stop here and point out the big lipstick kiss on the side of her face! You can definitely tell Jaslynn is loved - lol!

She was interested in the flowers. Isn't she adorable?

Mom and daughter both wore purple :).

Jaslynn let us lay her down on her back for a minute, so I shot a whole bunch of pictures because we knew it wouldn't last long - lol!

(And, Jaslynn wasn't really asleep. She was just pretending :O).)




We did this photo shoot two days before Halloween. Jaslynn's mom was so excited to find this little ladybug outfit. Jaslynn, on the other hand, was not excited about wearing the fleece outfit in the 84 degrees temperature - lol! Can't say as I blame her. Again, we shot fast!

Just another shot of mom's hair :).

Isn't she beautiful? And, I leave you with this thought . . . . . . . .

Fix-It Friday, Week 34, I ♥ Faces

It's Fix-It Friday at I ♥ Faces. This is the original they gave us to work with.

Here is my first edit. I used Picasa and PSCS3 to pop up the color, edit out bruises and bug bites, smooth the skin, pop the eyes, and blur the edges.

Next, I reversed the image and added a bit of solar flare, which in this particular case softened the picture a bit.

For this one I cropped in and focused on her face. In the original she had a lot of purpling around the eye. I smoothed this out in PSCS3, then used mcpactions.com's Magic Skin action.

I like to play around with settings in photoshop. I changed up the contrast and got the photo on the right.

Then I put the picture through mcpactions.com's Coloring Book, Cocoa Twist action. I love how this last one turned out! Why don't you join in the fun and post some edits of your own? To see how others interpreted this week's picture, head on over to I ♥ Faces.

Urijah - Take Two

And so began a love story.

And then, this man and this woman got married under a gazebo.

Their love resulted in this little fellow:

Three months ago I took the above photo. You can view Urijah's newborn shots here.

Fast-forward three months and this is what Urijah looks like now :).

My understanding is that Urijah was named after a well-known fighter, thus the Tapout shots :O).





Isn't that the prettiest smile you've ever seen?


We took these shots in the same gazebo Urijah's mom and dad were married in.

What a beautiful family :).



His Aunt Lindsay got him these cute little flip flops :O).


Isn't Urijah's mother beautiful?


The three of them make a fine looking family!




Glamma and Glamson :).



Thanks for letting me take Urijah's pictures! I had a great afternoon with your sweet family!

You Capture Thursday - Several Days Late :)

This week's You Capture challenge is technology. I wasn't going to post this week because I hadn't taken any appropriate photos. As I was looking through the other postings, I noticed that no one had posted shots of a Kindle.

Currently this is my favorite piece of technology. My son got me hooked on the Kindle. It is a digital book reader sold at amazon.com. You can purchase books online and download them direct to your Kindle. It stores up to 1,500 books. Amazon has many free books, such as most of the classics, that you can download for free. I have the complete works of Shakespeare.

I just finished reading this (for the 3rd time). The movie is coming out in a couple weeks, so I wanted to freshen my memory :O). Kali and I are going to the opening with a group of friends from Kali's work. Who do you vote for? Team Edward? or Team Jacob?

To view some awesome technology photos, head on over to I Should Be Folding Laundry.

Just Cover Your Mouth :)

You know Garfield's my favorite!

It's that time of year. Cold season. Flu season. Now, it's swine-flu season.

Be safe, take precautions, cover your mouth, flu shots, hand-sanitizer.

You get the picture. If not, just take Garfield's lead! He's my favorite, you know?

Playing on the Beach With Alexis

We did this photo shoot at the lakefront/beach near where we live. Alexis was a hoot! She ran and played and twirled and laughed and kept wanting to swim, even though it was like 54 degrees - lol!

These flower shots were my favorite from the whole morning :).



I had never used balloons in a photo shoot before, but thought they'd be fun for Alexis.

I hoped to get 5 or 6 great shots, then let Alexis take the balloons home with her when we were finished, but, while she stood by this railing . . . .

. . . . something happened, and the balloons got launched to the wind - lol! At least I got a couple good shots of them floating away :O). What a hoot!


This beautiful butterfly came from the same place the balloons did - Sweet Peas.


The butterfly idea was a keeper! I'll try this again for sure :O).


The wind was a little strong, so the bubbles didn't last long. I love how the sun is shining on each bubble like a tiny little solar flare!

This brought a smile to her face! And some running and dancing and twirling to her feet! I loved it!


Alexis loves the color pink. She brought this bright pink hoodie with her.




Family shots.




By this point, we were cold and ready to leave, but not before a couple more shots. (I can see myself in Alexis' eyes in these next two photos - lol!)


Isn't she beautiful? I had a great time with this family. I hope they love their photos :). This last one just kind of sums up the day - at least for me :O).

Fix-It Friday, Week #33 @ I ♥ Faces

It's Fix-It Friday at I ♥ Faces. Above is the original they gave us to work with. You can see there is some serious light coming in from the left side of the photo, which caused the opposite side of his face to be in extreme shadows.

To start with I cropped the photo in tight. Then I used PSCS3 to lighten and sharpen the face. Doing this caused the shadows under his eyes to really be prominent, so I painted a little color there and brightened his eyes up a bit. I smoothed the skin tones down with mcpactions.com 's "magic powder" action, added a little catchlights in the eyes, then . . . . . .

. . . . . to distract from all the light on the back and side of the little fellow's head, I added a solar flare pop and made it look like i wanted all that light in the shot - lol! Isn't photoshop great!

PSCS3 also allows you to turn the whole completed affect into black and white! These are my renditions for the day :O). To see what everyone else did, head on over to I ♥ Faces!

Pink Week at I ♥ Faces

The challenge at I ♥ Faces this week is Pink! Anything to do with pink. It's in honor of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I did a photo shoot for a friend on Thursday. While I was setting up a shot - this little girl yelled, "squirrel!" and watched him until he was out of sight. I love the look on her face! So fresh and innocent, and totally excited about seeing a squirrel hopping from branch to branch - lol! I really like how her pink top justs sets off the whole picture! To check out more pink shots, head on over to I ♥ Faces.

Sadie and Adrianna

I spent the morning with this family earlier in the week. We went to the local "beach" and had a lot of fun! Beautiful kids, beautiful family!

What started out as a babyshoot quickly became a family shoot...and it was perfect!

My absolute favorite of the day above! Isn't she beautiful?

Also my absolute favorite of the day above! :O)

Such a loving big-sister!

Adrianna. What gorgeous eyes!

Adrianna's mom is beautiful!







Sadie loved the flowers and wanted to give them to her mama.



Daddy's girl!




Thanks for letting me spend my morning with your family. I had a great time shooting your photos at the "beach." We don't get to see you nearly as much as we would like to, so that made the morning extra-special :).

Already??? Didn't We Just Do This???

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. It IS that time of year ... again!

Time for clothes all over the house. Literally. Hunting clothes in the dining room, the laundry room, the living room, the bedroom, the bathroom ... you get the idea.

Time for special soap to wash the clothes, special soap to wash the person - don't want any smells out there.

Gun cases in the living room, the dining room, the bedroom, just like the clothes. Oh no, there are even hunting clothes on the boat! Can I get a witness!? Can I get a shout!?

And don't think this cartoon is a joke, because it isn't ... yuck. Hunters! Can't live with 'em ... and you can't live without 'em! Gotta love it :).

Training Minds Debate Camp, October, 2009

Apparently a lot of people - lol! A whole bunch of students from all over the country came to our area last week to attend a debate camp.

(For those who don't regularly follow my blog - I never post the names of students, except for my own.)

The camp was taught by Training Minds Ministries. A team of coaches came prepared to teach classes to novice and advanced Christian debaters.

These coaches are all national level debaters and champions. They know what it takes to put together a winning case. A national-quality case. And how to debate both sides of the issue.

On Thursday evening, carloads of parents and students began arriving. Students lined the grounds...waiting...watching for friends...for other students they recognized from last season's competitions.


Many of them Kali and I already knew. Many we did not. New friends, just waiting to be met :).


It didn't take long to find someone new to talk with, someone to hug on, someone to be excited to see! Good friends!


The camp grounds were beautiful! Lots of shade trees and walkways and breezes coming in off the lake. Even though it's already the middle of October, the weather was hot and humid.

Classes started right away. In the NCFCA - the national league Kali debates in - there are two styles of debate: Team Policy where you team up with a partner and debate policies pertinent to a particular topic; and Lincoln-Douglas Vaue Debate where individuals debate based on a chosen value.



The photos above are from the Team Policy room.


These shots are from the Lincoln-Douglas rooms.

What would camp be without some good camp food? The students seemed to get plenty to eat and no one went hungry :O).




Whenever the students had some free time on their hands, you could find them scattered around studying and preparing cases to debate, hoping they could come up with an angle that would stump their opponent/s.


First round of debates - whether they were ready or not. There were many first-time debaters.





As some students debated, the other students listened, learned, strategized, and thought about their own cases. This particular round was called a 'coached round.' While the students were debating their cases, the Training Minds coaches would actually stop the debaters and make suggestions to fix faulty points, problem areas, or to give them hints on what to do next, what questions to ask, where to go with the case. The coaches would ask why certain questions were asked, the intention being to help the students strengthen their cases.



But, the life of a debater isn't all "debating." They have to leave time for a little POP here ....

.... and a little POP there ....

.... and a little POP among friends - lol!

Of course, there was also time to catch up with a lot of friends.

I am so thankful that the students are comfortable with me taking so many pictures of them. At the beginning of the camp I got a lot of shots of backs, and slowly during the following days I started getting profiles, then face shots - lol!

Of course there was time for recreation. Even though this next shot is blurry, I love the action it shows.




(No debaters were harmed in the making of these shots.)

There were a lot of cameras. And a lot of sunglasses.
Cameras + sunglasses = teenagers.

Shirt Day. Blue shirts - Team Policy. Red Shirts - Lincoln-Douglas.

Such a sad-looking LD'er there - lol!

OK, enough fun and games. Back to studying and prep-work.



Then they debated again. Most did much better in this round.



So. What do you think? Think it's hard to debate? Well, just be thankful you weren't a parent at the Training Minds Debate Camp (unless you actually were, then you could answer these questions realistically!) The parents got to debate as well. These parents are debate or speech coaches in their local clubs. Most, if not all, had never debated before. We ran two Team Policy debates and one Lincoln-Douglas debate.



The parents all did a pretty good job. One team had a bit of a break in the middle while one of the debaters had a "laugh attack" - lol! Proud of you, parents! You were awesome!

Then we moved on to the Final Round. On the last morning, three of the students were able to debate three of the coaches in a challenging round.


A really impressive LD round. This student did a really good job of holding his own with the coach.





In this Team Policy round, one of the coaches "flowed" the debate for the audience. This is a way of keeping track of details provided by each team and whether the opponent challenges it or not. (Yeah, debaters, I know that's a terrible description, but it's the best I can do.)

My favorite photo from this round. I call it, "Are we done yet?!?"

And before we knew it, it was time to pack up and tell everyone so long until tournament season.



Now, after following a run-down of a week at a Training Minds Debate Camp, do you think it's hard work? all studying? all writing cases, with definitions, criteria, and contentions? affirmative or negative? applications, evidence, and support? inherency, solvency, significance, advantages and harms (sorry guys, I'm not a TP'er)? Well, if you think it's all hard work, just think again....


See you guys at next year's Training Minds Debate Camp!