09-JUL-2008
Butterfly or fist fight?
This picture cracks me up. Claire and Ben do summer swim team every year. Claire is doing really well at freestyle this year, but butterfly is just not one of her strokes. Her coaches made her do fly in the medley relay yesterday, and she looks like she's ready to beat someone up over it. ROFL!
04-JUL-2008
mmmmm bread
My long-time online buddies have been raving about this bread recipe for the last few days. They said, "Easy!"... "No kneading!"... "Tastes incredible!"..."Only 4 ingredients!"...yeah, right. Nothing is THAT easy. Turns out they were right! It's called something like 5 minute no-knead artisan bread, and it really is all those things they said. Here's the link to the recipe if you'd like to give it a try:
http://www.showcaseminnesota.com/recipes/recipe_detail.aspx?rid=4696
I promise, you will NOT regret it. Yummy!
25-JUN-2008
Good morning, Papasan
Claire wanted a papasan chair for her birthday (don't ask), and we found a frame on craigslist for 20 bucks. This morning, when we got up, this little dude was walking around on the rim of the frame. He must have wanted to have his picture taken, because every time I focused on him, he walked closer to me! I had no idea little grasshoppers had such cool faces!
22-JUN-2008
We are the champions!
After having a kid on the Green Hornets for five long years, this team finally won a league tournament championship. We've been with this team since Molly was eight, and there have been many close calls, but they were never able to completely pull it together until this year...and boy, did they pull it together! They beat the other team 8-0 (and the game was eventually called due to a run rule); but not only did they dominate, they played with heart and spirit. You could feel the excitement all over the field! Every single player made at least one fantastic play during the tournament - it was truly a team effort. Green Hornets rock! More pictures from this tournament to be posted later.
21-JUN-2008
3rd place!
So these guys finally had their first win this weekend! It's been a tough season for the Renegades so far, but they played their hearts out on Saturday and ended up with a third place plaque to prove it. Way to go, Renegades!
02-JUN-2008
School's out! School's out! Teacher let the monkeys out!
Here's my first third grade class ever on Field Day - two days before school was out for the summer. I really love these guys and I will always remember them as my first class. I have to say, though - I think we were all ready for the year to be OVER! We tie-dyed these shirts ourselves for our field trip to the local minor league ball park a few weeks previous to this pic, and we couldn't resist the chance to wear them one more time. Pretty good for amateurs, dontcha think?
31-MAY-2008
The Ugly Bug Ball
This not so lovely creature is a Magicicada septendecim - otherwise known as a 17 year cicada. These things have been coming out of the ground like crazy and making enough noise to wake the dead for a week or two now. They are positively ugly and they are EVERYWHERE. It is so weird to think that they've been underground for 17 years, just waiting for this particular summer to annoy us! A few years ago we had the 30 year variety, which were even louder and uglier. Ah, the joys of living in Kentucky! Anyhow, if you want to know more about our teenage bug buddies, you can check them out here:
http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef446.asp
You can see a couple other views of our musical friends here:
http://www.pbase.com/rowstymitt/summer2008
22-MAR-2008
Spring is here....maybe
So yesterday was the first day of spring...the few daffodils we have are blooming and have already been picked by Claire - so much for flowers! Of course, the temperature today was in the 30s - just in time to sit outside for hours watching softball - ugh. Taking pictures of flowers is harder than it looks. I messed around with this one, can't seem to get them in focus indoors. Maybe I need a macro lens.
You can see the rest of the pictures here:
http://www.pbase.com/rowstymitt/filters&page=3
12-FEB-2008
Snow Day
First real snow day in Kentucky. It started off as a beautiful snow and by early morning had switched over to freezing rain, so we had a gigantic mess, plus the advantage of getting to play hooky from school! This is looking up at the eaves from my back door...it is just raining now and most of the ice is gone. If the temperature goes down tonight, we'll have another big mess for sure!
03-FEB-2008
mmmm chocolate
This was shot for the "childhood" assignment. I just wanted to take a picture of Ben's new hole in his face, and then he was so obviously enjoying the dessert Molly made that I didn't even ask him to clean up first. The other two shots I considered are here:
http://www.pbase.com/rowstymitt/image/92502112
http://www.pbase.com/rowstymitt/image/92502114
Church near Dayton, OH
I had to go to Ohio this past weekend for my aunt's funeral. While we were driving around, my brother showed me this old church - perfect for the abandoned building assignment! Here's a link to more abandoned building pictures from other photographers in my group:
http://www.pbase.com/cdrebel/assignment_abandonedbuildings
My dad says these remind him of the Joyce Kilmer poem "The House With Nobody In It"...I agree. You can read the poem here:
http://www.poetry-archive.com/k/the_house_with_nobody_in_it.html
I don't think building photos are my thing!
22-JAN-2008
We need some real snow, please!
Every school in the greater Lexington area was closed today...for this. My poor children attempted to make snowmen out of what was there - here are the pitiful results. Somebody please send some real snow to Kentucky!!
21-JAN-2008
Clone army, aerial view
Ben will spend hours setting up these things. You should see what he can do with Post-It notes, duct tape, and a few paper clips. Sometimes he scares me! :-)
21-JAN-2008
Ben's Clone Army
Ben doesn't play with Legos like normal people. He makes spaceship fleets out of Post-It Notes and lines up anything else he can find in these elaborate formations. He begged me to take a picture of this in case the dog destroyed it (which she no doubt will, since he decides to create these armies in the middle of the living room floor!). Here's a close up, an aerial view is in the next entry.
20-JAN-2008
Filtered Hector
I had to try this with one of the animals as well, and Hector won, since she was the nearest to my camera! I actually like the originals of this picture better, which can be seen here:
http://www.pbase.com/rowstymitt/filters
20-JAN-2008
Moody Claire
So I was taking pictures of everyone else to play with and Claire wanted to be included despite her crabby mood. The hat is part of a costume she wore to a High School Musical party earlier in the afternoon - she was Kelsi, the pianist/composer. You'd never know from her current mood that she had a good time at that party!
20-JAN-2008
Lost in thought
Here's another example of a photo that I might have thrown out at first, but looks interesting with this plugin filter. This one, I think, is supposed to have sort of a dreamy quality. I like it because it shows Molly lost in thought (or space, ROFL), which at almost 13 is where she spends much of her time!
20-JAN-2008
Refusing to look at the camera
So I got this new plugin for Photoshop called Virtual Photographer, and I wanted to see what it would do with boring pictures. Ben refuses to cooperate whenever I bring out the camera so this face is pretty typical for him. It's supposed to look sort of like an old magazine shot....I think. The next few pictures are more examples of what this toy can do. I'm not sure I'd want to print these, but they are interesting.
19-JAN-2008
Texture assignment, attempt 2
This week's assignment was texture. I was having a really hard time figuring this one out, since all the other entries were so good (you can check them out here:
http://www.pbase.com/cdrebel/texture ). I finally saw Molly's new glove on the table (where it didn't belong, mind you) and tried that out. The glove is another story - her old glove is only 3 years old and her hand sweats so much when she pitches that the inside rotted out. Ewwww! Bummer, too, because she got Jennie Finch's autograph on it a couple of years ago and now she really can't use it.
12-JAN-2008
Claire and her bunny
This was another attempt at depth of field. I like this one because I think it shows Claire's personality. The bunny was not happy about being photographed and bit her right after this picture - oops! It's Claire's bunny because the other two want nothing to do with it - Molly calls it "that stupid chinchilla" - ROFL!
12-JAN-2008
Picture of a pitcher
For my photo group, I had to shoot a picture with the theme "Depth of field". Molly wanted nothing to do with this, but I coerced her to pose just for a minute. I like the concept of this picture but I think I'd like to do it again when she's got on her uniform, maybe shooting up at her. I have to say that once she saw the results, she did agree to pose again at another time for me.
10-JAN-2008
God Bless Us, Every One
Molly's class read "A Christmas Carol" back in December, and last week they had a Dickens-themed party to celebrate - tea, dancing, croquet on the lawn, that sort of thing. This is their rendition of period costumes, and we tried to make this photo look old. Of course, I had to edit out the basketball hoop in the background!
