Picture Perfect

I have begun to play around with some pictures that I have taken recently and am using Adobe Photoshop CS4 to create special effects and add some flair to the pictures. I am having some problems with it since many of the pictures I have edited, it will not let me save as a JPG file, but only will let me save in Adobe format, so I am working through that and will see what I can come up with.

The first picture is one of Micah on the 4th of July. It was very bright outside and he was wearing red, white and blue. Instead of him being completely washed out from the brightness and concrete behind him, I added a shadow around him to illuminate the colors he is wearing and allow his smiling to be the focal point.

The next one is a picture of Alexis and Micah in our front yard the weekend of 4th of July. It was pouring down rain and they were enjoying getting wet. I decided to create a picture that renders the light and filters out the majority of it and allows for their faces to be the focal point.

The final picture is one of Alexis holding an umbrella in the rain. I decided I wanted to try something different with this one and created the distorted wave effect. It adds a lot to this picture as she is already in the rain and creates a wet and blurry look for the viewer.

There will be more to come in the next few days, so stay tuned.

Take my breath away

We ventured to Tulsa, OK to land a surprise visit to Michele's mom for her 50th birthday. It was totally unexpected and very well received and appreciated. Michele purchased some lasagna from Walmart, salad fixings and bread. She cooked the meal there and then her brother and his wife brought the german chocolate cake for dessert. It was quite a tasty meal and definitely got a thumbs up by everyone. We enjoyed our visit and headed home.

On the way home we stopped in to visit the newest Quik Trip in the Tulsa area. I wish I had taken pictures. It is a one-stop shop for everything and includes a coffee bar, much like Starbucks inside...and tastes just as good and is half the price. You order your beverage from a kiosk and then pay when you are ready to leave. We loaded up with some hot and cold beverages and hopped on the turnpike to return to Shawnee.

In between Chandler and Shawnee, I caught a quick wiff of a ripe skunk smell....I about lost it. I cannot stand that smell....and what to my wondering ears do I hear from the backseat? My 3 year old Micah declares, "what was that smell, daddy?" I said, "A skunk!" He responds, "Yuck!"
Simply precious and something that made me laugh at loud. I only wish had written all the funny sayings Alexis had said when she was younger. At least I have the ability to catch things they say from now on.

A skunk may have literally taken my breath away, but my son's funny question and answer trumps the skunk.

What a fun and quik trip. :)

Blessings.

4th of July

4th of July weekend 2010
This past weekend was the 4th of July. It was a wet and wild weekend as we experienced some major downpours on Friday evening, all day Saturday and then Sunday evening. But the rain did not damper or keep us from having fun. We still managed to go watch some fireworks, grill out and do some of our own fireworks. :)

Friday night after church we ventured over to the Expo center and prepared to watch the fireworks. It is apparently the last year for Shawnee to do fireworks for budget reasons. Throughout the entire show it rained lightly and made for an interesting experience.

Saturday was pretty much a washout due to the extreme rains that were dumped on our area in the range of 3 inches. The kids played outside and splashed in the puddles and then we ventured to Oklahoma City and dined at On The Border; our favorite Mexican restaurant. After we had our bellies full, we then drove over to POPS on Route 66 and enjoyed some cold beverages. We then headed home to head for bed.

Sunday, we went to church and then afterwards we grilled outside before the rains came. We grilled hamburgers, hotdogs, shrimp and veggie k-bobs. We enjoyed an indoors picnic, as our neighbor was outside mowing and made for a not so pleasant time to enjoy our food outdoors.

After eating we loaded up and went and got some of our own fireworks...the silent kind as it is illegal to pop fireworks in the city limits. We got some sparklers, smoke balls and black/colored snakes. We enjoyed lighting them and then once we were done the heaven's opened up once again and dumped more rain on our soaked lawn....mowing will be fun later this week.




We then lounged around indoors and watched the movie Enchanted. It was pretty good.

All in all, we had a wonderful weekend and didn't allow the weather to rain on our parade.