Life on the Edge

I had a lot of fun this afternoon taking pix of a kid from our church. He's a skateboarder who hopes to go pro someday. Though it was a lot of fun to watch and to photograph, I personally think skateboarders are absolute NUTS! Kids were falling all the time - even the good ones seem to fall frequently and it's on pavement!! OUCH!!! But everyone appeared to be having a good time. And I suppose that when they do land an amazing trick it has to be somewhat the same feeling I get from taking a picture that I'm really proud of. I really am glad that God made us all so different! It does make life much more interesting. :)

YIPEEE!!!!!

Finalist Frenzy!!

Toadally Rich
Mousy Maestro

And the funniest of all is Heather's...

Color Blinds

She wouldn't even put it in her gallery cuz she thought it was so ugly! LOL!!! We should find out by the end of the month if we win or not. I have been entering this contest since the beginning of 2004 and haven't yet gotten a win yet... but I'm always having to remind myself that the competition is extremely steep and incredibly talented so just to get a finalist is quite an honor. In July alone there were over 26300 photos entered into the contest!!!!

You can check view all the finalists here if you are interested and/or bored! :)

It's a Circus

Did anyone else see the circus act over at Seabreeze? They were a lot of fun to watch. After the show I talked with some of the performers and they invited me to come take pictures of them before the park opened. I had a lot of fun, though it was pretty tough to catch the action at times. My camera doesn't always want to focus that fast. The park photographer actually wired himself up above the trapeze and took shots from above. Yikes!!! Apparently he has the same philosophy as me - Anything for a picture!

Hot Frogs!

Aren't they a cute couple? These are my mom's neighbors Fire Bellied Toads which she graciously allowed me to photograph in exchange for a print. They didn't like posing for the camera though and kept me quite busy chasing after them!! I snapped this one just before one of 'em hopped away. I submitted these guys over to Shutterstock this morning for review. Hopefully they will sell as well as my big ugly toad! He continues to sell well and is currently the #1 selling toad over at Shutterstock!! I'm pretty proud of that fact - can you tell??? I've sold 220 photos to date... I'm not going to make my goal of 400 by the end of the month, but, oh well! I'm still having fun and I'm making progress and I'm learning tons in the process. So, that's what counts. I'm also trying to take a breather every now and again and spend some time doing other things besides taking pictures - like spending time with the family. I realize that I can get so wrapped up in this that I miss out on what is really important!! As much as I believe that God gave me this passion - I also know that in His book (the only book that counts) relationships come FIRST! A relationship with Him and then with our families and with others.

Field of Miracles

Nicky Cruz (from the Cross and the Switch Blade and Run Baby Run) will be speaking both Friday night and Saturday night. Also Jason Upton will be leading worship on Sunday evening. It promises to be an awesome weekend and it's all free! So invite all your unsaved friends and family and get out to Frontier Field!!

Flying Fingers

Grandma and Grandpa surprised Jessi with a new electric piano. We had it arranged to arrive while she was away visiting them. First we had to find a new home for our beastly old cabinet grand. After checking with friends we finally resorted to putting a sign out by the road - "Free Piano - inquire within". Within an hour or two someone had claimed it and had arranged to move it on Friday morning. She was thrilled to have a piano for her daughter and we were thrilled to have it out in time as the new piano arrived that evening. Jessi came home on Saturday and nearly walked right past it!! But she is absolutely THRILLED with it. It even has her favorite Pride and Prejudice song prerecorded on it. Plus you can download songs from the web and it will play them for you. I almost wonder why you need to learn to play anymore! But Jessi says it helps her to learn cuz you can slow the songs down (or speed them up if you like) and play along with them. We are all enjoying it.

Optical Illusion

Conversations with Heather

Here's an actual conversation I had with Heather today... She mentioned something about my sister giving her the phone # of a voice teacher so she can take lessons.

I asked: Did you write it down somewhere where you won't lose it?

Heather: Yes... but I lost it.

History Test

We've been visiting my inlaws this week in Virginia. The weather seems to be about what it has been for us only they have air conditioning here. :)

On Sunday we went to the National D-Day Memorial. Seeing as I know next to NOTHING about WWII I was a bit bored cuz everything just went over my lil head. But Brett and the kids all enjoyed themselves. Probably Heather most of all as she's is my WWII history buff. We took the golf cart tour where our tour guide filled us in on all of the exhibits. He had me a bit nervous cuz he said that when we got to the plaques commemorating all of the fatalities there was a name on one of 'em that would just jump out at us. He said he'd have one of the ladies (referring to me or Heather) read the names and see if we could pick it out. Of course Heather insisted that I be the one put on the spot. And she knows more about WWII than I ever will! He said it hasn't failed him yet - EVERYONE catches this name.... My heart was thumping. Would I be the first to fail this little test and look like a complete idiot?! You can bet I was wishing that I had paid more attention in History class!! He pulls up to the plaque and asks me to read the names.... And the very second name, and I kid you not, read George W. Bush!!! Phew! I passed the test.... even lil ole me knew that George W. Bush couldn't have been a fatality in WWII! At least not THE George W. Bush. Our guide went on to explain that our president had a relative also named George W that died in WWII. He said that a guest caught the name on the plaque even before he saw it and he hung it up!!

I'm a Mali Uromastyx

Today was HOT, HOT, HOT! I was so hot that I ran out to the store to buy POPSICLES. Thankfully they weren't sold out yet! I also needed ice cuz mine is melting so fast that I can't seem to make it fast enough.

BUT, it could be worse. It could be COLD outside! So, I'm thankful for the heat!

Martha, I guess you could say I feel like a desert dwelling mali uromastyx!!