The Next Ansel Adams

Let me tell ya, I have been having SO much fun with my new camera! It arrived about a week ago and I think I've probably taken 200 pictures already! Granted, not all of them have been good and I've deleted quite a few, but I'm still learning how to use all the features. Even with my limited knowledge, I've managed to snap some really good pictures. The clarity is amazing - so much better than my point & shoot Canon.

Here are a few of my recent masterpieces:

The kids at the park

Murphy, the cat

Zoe Grace

I will continue practicing and learning how to use all the features so that hopefully I can get some good pictures that can be blown up. I'd love to have some that we could use in our house. That'd be cool.

My new toy!

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am over my latest purchase! Even though yesterday was technically The Hubby's birthday, I ordered myself a present. Not without his consent/approval/permission, of course. Especially since it's probably the most expensive thing we've purchased since we bought our refrigerator about 7 years ago (not counting vehicles). But I digress.

I bought a camera! And not just any ol' camera. I purchased my very first digital SLR camera, a Nikon D40. The thought has been in the back of my head for awhile now that we really could use a nicer camera, if we ever wanted to actually get pictures of the kids that were spontaneous and of any kind of quality. But then after discovering my now-favorite blog, www.thepioneerwoman.com, and viewing the awesome pictures that Ree takes, the hunger grabbed ahold of me. Then my girlfriend, Brooke, who is a photo enthusiast also, got a new camera and I knew I just had to join the club. I'm such a joiner.

I researched cameras on line, read reviews and even went and fondled one at Target to see what it actually felt like. Let me tell ya, it felt good. So I grabbed a $12 CD for The Hubster as his birthday present and rushed to home order myself a $500+ camera. Ok, it's not really all for me. I have to remember that and let Josh use it too.

But I can't wait to get it! And it comes with all kinds of accessories: two tripods, a hard carrying case and a soft one, a wide angle lens, 3 filters, a 4GB memory card, a memory card reader, and a car/home batter recharger. I'll be completely set up and ready to shoot. I'm looking forward to getting some good pictures of the kids, especially with the holidays coming. And maybe for Christmas I'll ask for a telephoto lens. That'd be cool.

Later I'll tell you why I think I've bought this from The Mob, but for now Miss Z keeps saying "Take a baf, me!" Time to go get clean.

Love Languages

So I took this quiz this morning: http://edified.org/myspace/lovelanguage. I suspected what the results would be, considering I've read part of Gary Chapman's book, The Five Love Languages, before (I actually own it). The book, and quiz, are geared towards helping you figure out what makes you feel love or what your love language is. Anyway, here are my results:

Acts of Service: 10
Words of Affirmation: 9
Quality Time: 6
Receiving Gifts: 3
Physical Touch: 2

Hmmm. Looks like a typical profile of a mom with small kids, don't you think? Translation: Help me clean this damn house, tell me I'm doing a good job, let me have some time for myself (aka quality time), remember my birthday, and give me an occasional snuggle.

I'm sure that if I were to have Hubby take this quiz his results would probably be an upside-down version of mine. I'm sure Physical Touch would top his list, because, well, he's a man, then he'd probably want some Affirming Words, then Quality Time, Acts of Service and at the bottom of the list would be Receiving Gifts.

I wonder if I can get him to read that book.