Day 270

LilCrockett has been working really hard for the past few weeks.  He has extra reading homework seven nights a week and that’s in addition to any assignments from his regular teacher.  Not to mention any studying that needs to be done before tests.  The hard work has paid off as we are seeing better grades on his assignments and tests.  Thus, I rewarded him with a trip to the dollar store for a toy last night after our tutoring session.  There weren’t a lot of high quality toys there, but he eventually settled on a knock-off army-themed Lego set.  We put the pieces together once we got home.  The quality of real Legos is so much better than this cheapo brand, but he was happy and I saved a lot of money. 

Day 250

Today GothGirl had a tooth pulled in preparation for braces.  Her left upper jaw is out of alignment with the lower jaw, so they are going to bring some teeth forward to make it a perfect fit.  The poor thing was fairly nervous, but handled it really well.  She opted to have the laughing gas instead of IV sedation and I was surprised because she is a big wimp….her pain tolerance is really low.  I thought she’d want to be completely put out.  Luckily her oral surgeon was extremely good with kids.  We had a pre-consultation and he explained everything that he was going to do and told GothGirl all of her options.  Had this not happened, I think her nerves would have been overwhelming.

They gave her the laughing gas.  Before long, she started giggling up a storm.  GothGirl is a natural giggler anyway, so it was really exaggerated with the gas.  She had me laughing as well until she had to open her mouth for them to start working .  About 10 minutes later, they were done and the tooth was out.  We went into a recovery room and watched a short video, paid, and then stopped at Sam’s for a milkshake.  We got home and her tooth was starting to hurt, so I gave her some Advil and put in a movie for her.  Felix curled up in her lap and they spend most of the morning relaxing.  By late afternoon, she was feeling fine and even wanted solid foods for dinner.  So glad she came through it OK.  In two weeks, she will get her spacers (which create space for the braces) and then a week later, she will get her braces.  She is very excited.  I’m pretty sure she’ll be tired of them before too long though.   

  

The photo above was the last one I took with my 7D before sending it off for servicing.  I’m pretty sure there is an issue with the autofocus and I wanted to get it fixed before my warranty expires.  I’ve been doing a lot of research and apparently this is a common problem on this model.  The crazy thing was that it was so hard to send off.  It’s insured so I’m not worried about breakage or anything, but it just didn’t feel right to send it off.  Almost as if I was missing it already. 

With the 7D gone, I am back to using my Rebel xTi.  Compared to the 7D, the Rebel seems like a Cracker Jack toy as it’s nowhere near the quality of camera as the 7.  Though I must admit that I prefer the lighter weight of the Rebel….wow, what a difference!  It took me a bit to get used to the buttons and controls on the Rebel.  I remember that when I got the 7D, it seems so foreign and I could barely figure out how to take a photo.  Now, I kinda feel the same way about the Rebel.  Fortunately it’s a much simpler camera, so it was easy to get back in the groove.  I’m still counting down the days until my 7D returns though.

This afternoon, we promised LilCrockett a fun activity if he did his reading homework without complaining.  He is a little behind most of his classmates, so he started in a special reading group this week to give him some extra help.  We also have to work with him every night.  Such a different scenario than with GothGirl….she was in the advanced reading group at his age.  I can already tell that school is not going to come quite as easy for LilCrockett as it did for her, which is also going to mean more work for us.  I don’t mind the extra work, but I just don’t feel like I have good teaching skills (or patience).  Cross your fingers for all of us!  Anyway, after he got his work done we went to the local park to fly his new kite.  Actually, once we got there and opened the box, it turned out to be a glider not a kite.  We had just assumed it was a kite because it had been given to him as a present along with some kite string.  Oh well.  We had fun with it anyway, though it was a bit too windy for a glider.

 

Before long, LilCrockett got bored with the diving glider and opted to head to the playground for a bit.  Ignore the mismatched, layered clothes….LilCrockett dressed himself today! 

Day 245

Felix’s favorite toy is a stuffed fish on a string that’s tied to a pole.  He is on his third one of these and he never gets tired of it.  When you wave it around, you can get him to jump to crazy heights in an effort to “catch” it.  He’s fairly maniacal about it.  I figured it was time to get a picture of him with his fish.  He was playing with it by himself in this photo so I need to try to get one of him when he’s jumping for it.

Day 218, part 1

Remember my little cousin in yesterday’s post?  The one with a mohawk.  Well, LilCrockett decided that he wanted a mohawk too.  Since school doesn’t start for 2 weeks and it will be awhile before school pictures are taken, I agreed to let him do it.  Crockett grabbed his clippers and got to work.  I have to admit that once he made that first cut, I had second thoughts about the whole thing.  LilCrockett has such gorgeous hair.  Oh well.  It will grow back.  Here are a couple of pics during the process.

And then the final product after we applied some gel and spiked it up.

And later that night making tough faces in the mirror…

At first he really loved it.  But then he thought maybe the other kids would make fun of him for being bald on the sides.  I think he was expecting to have super short hair on the sides plus the mohawk.  We told him it would grow back and he seemed better about it, though he only really likes it when it’s spiked up.  I feel the same way.  When it’s flat, it looks sort of like a mullet or a horse’s mane.  Definitely looks much cooler spiked up. 

During the afternoon, the kids got out the marbles that our cousins had given them a few weeks back and Crockett showed them how to shoot marbles.  They were all having a lot of fun, though GothGirl was frustrated that she couldn’t aim well.  I had fun watching them play such a simple, old time game.  Felix enjoyed watching too though I couldn’t get a decent picture of him going after a wayward marble.  Darn! 

Day 217

It was time for our annual family reunion this afternoon, so we made the short trip to the town where it is held.  Most of the day was spent inside the hall that we had rented due to the heat.  Sadly the lighting was pretty poor so the photos I took are not that stellar.  We did venture out a bit and the photos I took outside were so much better.  The reunion is held in a local park and there happened to be a hawk flying around.  He would swoop all around the outside of the hall.  At one point, he flew into a nearby tree with the bird he had caught, where he proceeded to rip it apart.  You could see the bird’s feathers floating down from the sky.  Several of us stood under the tree and he didn’t mind a bit.

Here’s his tail end…

And now his front end…

This is my cousin’s grandson.  He just turned 2 and was the youngest at the reunion.  The best part is that I captured him with his tongue hanging out.  Check out his cute mohawk haircut!  Remember this haircut as it will come up again in a future post! 

A cousin making some sidewalk chalk art…

LilCrockett and 2 of his distant cousins making some sidewalk chalk art…

LilCrockett, GothGirl, and Crockett playing ball in the next few photos..

Crockett & GothGirl taking a break…

Day 196

Sunflowers in gorgeous sunlight in my neighbor’s ditch.

Wispy flower from my beautiful mimosa tree.

My beautiful blue-eyed kitten.

Kids playing Legos.

GothGirl’s braid-crimped hair.  This photo is a bit washed out because she is sitting directly in the sunlight that is streaming in the window.

Day 173

The kids earned a special treat for their good grades during the school year.  LilCrockett had been wanting some Bey Blades, so we make a trek to the toy store last night.  He picked out 2 tops and a fighting stadium.  Not cheap, but we made him pay for part of the purchase.  GothGirl ended up getting a new game for her Nintendo DS….Style Savvy.  She paid for part of her game as well.  Both kids were really happy as it’s not often that they get to go to the store to pick out a new toy.  They usually end up getting most of their toys either at garage sales or during birthdays, Christmas, or other holidays. 

The Bey Blades has actually been fun for the whole family.  It’s pretty cool to see which top will win.  Crockett remembers a similar toy when he was young.  Here are a few shots of LilCrockett and SoccerGirl (our friend’s daughter) playing with them before summer care this morning. 

Please don’t be jealous of LilCrockett’s outfit (Iyou know you are!).  He likes to dress himself and most of the time, he doesn’t match.  It’s something I’ve decided not to fight him on unless we are going someplace nice or it’s a special occasion.

This evening, LilCrockett had a baseball game.  GothGirl and I had to work in the concession stand, but I managed to sneak out for a bit to take a few photos of LilCrockett at bat, getting a high-five from his coach for a great hit, & getting read to run the bases.

Day 162

The neighbors and some other friends are camping at a local campground this weekend, so we went to visit them for the day.  It’s nice because the kids get a taste of camping without all the work that’s associated with it (packing, set-up, take-down, etc.).  We spend a lot of time sitting around the campsite visiting and eating (seems like we snack the whole time), but there were some other activities as well.

Hanging out…note how our neighbor Ambo is dressed in long sleeves and pants despite it being a nice warm day.  She and her sister hate cicadas and can’t stand them landing on her bare skin, so they cover up.  Unfortunately the cicadas were thick in the trees at this campground  and we spent quite a bit of time dodging them.  Our friend’s dog would root through the grass so she could eat them.  Yuck!

We brought LilCrockett’s ball and glove so that he could practice catching.  After some time spent playing ball with Crockett, he was doing really well….catching nearly every ball.  I think maybe he’s getting the hang of it.  Here he is throwing the ball back to his dad. 

We brought our slip-and-slide to the campground as well and the kids had a blast.  We found a portion of the commons area with a little hill and it made the slide that much more fun.

At one point, a clover stuck to the side of LilCrockett’s face.  He played for quite a bit longer and it stayed put, so I had to get a picture.

The kids were having so much fun that a few of the adults had to get in on the action.  Here’s our neighbor Joe trying to slide down while standing as my kids cheered him on.  He made it too!

Joe with his daughter Lupa after they did a run down the slide together.

Thought Crockett had tried the slip-and-slide earlier in the day, my neighbor Mary guilted him into going again while Joe was trying it.  He tried the upright slide too and made it almost as far as Joe.

And probably one of my favorite pictures of the day…our neighbors Ambo and Lupa.  Look at that sisterly love!

Day 158

I thought I’d share a little before & after with you.  Even professional photographers don’t get a perfect shot every time.  And since I’m a self-taught beginner, I DON’T get it right most of the time.  So, I have to rely on a little help from Adobe Camera Raw & Photoshop.

Here’s the SOCC (straight-out-of-camera) shot.  I needed more light in this photo, but didn’t want to use my flash or I’d end up with some horrible glare.    

So, I used Adobe Camera Raw to increase the exposure and change the White Balance.  I also increased Blacks and Contrast.  Next, I opened it in Photoshop where I ran The Pioneer Woman Lovely and Ethereal Action which softened her features.  I used the clone tool to remove her wispy strands of hair and the edge of the framed photo in the upper left corner. 

The bones of the photo  (composition, pose, styling, etc.) were good but I needed some help in other areas.  These edits took all of 5 minutes and made a world of difference.  Gotta love computer technology!

I wasn’t feeling good today, so I called off sick.  I was struggling with bad allergies and some kind of virus with the following symptoms: headache, tight chest, shortness of breath with activity, etc.  The kids stayed home from summer care too.  Besides the fact that I knew they would be sad about Kenai, LilCrockett was suffering from similar symptoms and I wanted him to have a day of rest.  Well, by afternoon he’d had enough and was itching to do something.  The neighbor girls were babysitting some other neighbor kids and they using their small slip-n-slide.  I told them they could get out our big one and they were very eager.  They played on that slide for several hours, but at one point I made them pose for a group photo.  GothGirl isn’t in this shot because she had went to a friend’s house for part of the day.  I was glad that both of them had a little distraction from the sad circumstances at our house with Kenai’s absence. 

The kids came back inside later in the day and before long, I came across this scene on the couch:

I debated on waking him up since it was too late for a nap and too early for bedtime, but I knew he needed some sleep.  He slept for about an hour and a half and then woke up super cranky.  This boy has never been able to wake up happy….it’s like he wakes up on the wrong side of the bed, after falling out of bed, and then being stepped on by an elephant.  It’s not pretty.

So, we went over to the neighbor’s house for another distraction.  Pretty soon, with the help of his buddy Lupa, LilCrockett got out of his funk.  It probably helped that Crockett came home with this new toy as well…a Honda Ruckus!  He’s been wanting one for quite awhile and he’ll use it to tool around the neighborhood and such.