Karate Fever

Well, Devon has been to three karate lessons now and she is really enjoying it. Dad is also enjoying helping her practice. It is causing him to reminiscence about his Taekwondo and Jujitsu days. Today he took the kids out so I could rest and he came home with a 80 lb punching bag with a stand. So our loft has turned into a karate zone.

At first I thought it was a silly use of money but watching the kids and even Chris enjoy made it worth the money. She is starting to get pretty good. Chris also got her a pair of sparring gloves too. Matthew now likes to come up to you and show you his "fighting stance." He's going to start karate in a couple of years and already know everything. ;) Here are a few shots of the kids "practicing."

Preach Retreat

So most of you know that last fall I decided to plunge down the path of Lay Speaking. I took the first of two classes to be certified in the fall and then in May I will take the other class. But before then, I am 90% certain that I will be going to a Lay Speaking Event. I'll be gone from home for three days and the only reason I'm not 100% sure that I will go is because Chris has to get March 4 off from work. If he can't I have a few back up ideas, but hopefully he can just get the day off.

What is kinda cool is Wednesday night after I finished getting the media ready for Selah (the worship service I attend) I went and talked with one of the new pastors about me becoming a Lay Speaker. They've known I'm perusing it, but I felt like I wanted them to be apart of the process. So we had a good little chat and it just got me even more excited about wanting to preach and then I came home and saw on my Facebook page the information on this event.

I'm a little nervous about going because I'm pretty sure I will know nobody there, and that always brings up a little anxiety in me. But I'll be hanging out with lots of Methodists and will probably meet a ton of interesting people. I'm not sure if I will be required to prepare a sermon to get credit for the course. We shall see.

It will be in Kerrville, and the bonus to that is I will get to drive through Fredericksburg I haven't been there yet. I know shame on me. We've lived in Austin for almost 6 years now, probably should have ventured there by now. But hopefully in a month I will get to do that. :)

Camera Wish List

Yesterday when I was at Wolf Camera picking up my square pictures, I noticed a camera in a display case that caused me to stop in my tracks. It's called a fisheye camera.

Isn't it cute! Scroll to the bottom of the link to see what kind of photo's it takes. You'll be amazed.

Super cool huh!! So of course I later came home and googled it and found lomography.com and saw more super awesome cameras.

The other camera I would actually buy is called a Action Sampler. It has four lens's and take four pictures on the same slide of film. Just click on the link to see how cool it is, again scroll down to see sample photos.

So yeah, I spent an hour online last night looking at all the fun cameras that are apart of the world of lomography.

HOLGA Love

My greatest art inspiration ever (Suzanne) got me a HOLGA for my birthday last year. And me being the dork that I am had to first research what in the world a HOLGA was. A little google time will tell you that it is a toy camera that uses 120 film. Also, it takes square pictures. Let this fact soak in a moment and the awesomeness will arise.

Did you notice a little word in the previous paragraph that seems a bit 1999? Film. Yep film. Not digital. In general, I take lots of pictures when ever I take pictures, whether it's of the kids, with family, or trying to be artsy. I do this because I'm not a trained photography and by taking many pictures it means there could be a handful of really good ones. But with film you don't get this luxury. Unless you want to spend a lot of money on film, you have to learn to think ahead and just think in general of what you want a picture of.

So with my first roll of film I was a bit cautious, not wanting to "waste" the film, but I also kept a fun spirit. I tried to take some double exposures (which is another key feature of the HOLGA), but none of them came out. I mean the film was develop-able, but it looks like blurry blobs. So First lesson learned, only take pictures in super sunny light. Sadly enough, all the double exposures but one were taken at night. Super lame. But it won't happen again.

What I didn't expect when the pictures came back was this antique look to the pictures. They look a decade or so old. It's really cool. Here is one of Matthew in the backyard.

But my favorite picture was a bit posed. The kids were playing at the Capitol and at one point sat together on a bench. Once I saw them from behind I was like, "Awesome picture moment," but by the time I pulled the camera out Matthew was already on the move. So made him sit back down so I could take the picture. So yeah, it's a fake moment. (But still cute!)


I'm sure you noticed some odd features on the sides of the photo. Well, I wasn't paying attention when winding the film. I actually thought I had figured out just how much to wind it without lifting the flap over the space that shows the film number. Amateur move. Won't happen again. So what you see on the sides are parts of the previous and next photo. But when you think about it, it's actually pretty neat looking.

I've loaded up roll number two in the HOLGA and I've already had a photo shoot, but I'm going to wait until they are developed to tell you what dorky idea I had.

Curses Facebook

I have let another large gaping hole emerge between blogs. For this I blame Facebook. Why? Well, I check it often to see what friends and family are up to, and then I end up condensing any real thoughts into a few short sentences instead of taking the time to write them out. This could be bad news all around. Less people write. I mean really write. So, I need to put my fingers (for typing) where my mouth is and sit down and blog.
But maybe later. I have to go grab the kiddo from school, and go to the library, and go to the camera shop and go to the grocery store. But surely there will be time in there later. Right?