Photoshop 101

And here, my friends, we have the result of Cam's Photoshop class. Does he make a beautiful picture for his mother.... No. Does he make a poster filled with a bunch of cute puppies, which we all know are his favorite things??? No. He put a Godzilla head on his brother and called him "Oogly" (which is the cool way they call each other "ugly" on a pretty much daily basis - in brotherly love, of course) and then captioned himself as "cool" - with arrows, so no one who views the picture would get mixed up...... Oy!!!! I guess the deal with Photoshop is basically this.... click on stuff and see what happens. I can only imagine the creative verbal phrases that I could come up with while trying to use this software. Small children should probably not be anywhere around :) Basic computer things drive me crazy.... I can only imagine the meds I'd need for Photoshop!

.... went off as planned on Saturday afternoon without a hitch! I have to admit that we could not have had our timing down any better! We didn't have to stand in our line at the end for 15-20 seconds like imbeciles, staring at the audience and waiting for our cue to "robot bow" like we did during our practice sessions! So, "Good job to us!" I'd pat myself on the back, but my right shoulder and the right side of my back are too sore to move right now :) I'm sure that we have our "Demo Team Mom" to thank for being there for all of us - giving us encouraging words and all.... :)

Look at us all looking over at Gigi for approval! We're like puppy dogs, "Did you see that???? No one forgot to run out on the floor at any time..... we finished with the music..... we bowed and stood back up..... the music is over..... why isn't anyone clapping.... did we suck?????"

My wonderful husband had a little break in between holding boards and taking Benjy to the bathroom :) so he had a chance to take some pictures and get some video of us breaking boards. Unfortunately, he didn't get our awesome circle :(

And, finally, check out Ry's face in this picture. I'm sure I'd be equally as scared if Mr. Stukus was coming at ME with a hammerfist.....

Tami, the crazy bird lady......

Today was a field trip day! We went to the National Aviary downtown. I have a bunch of great pictures to share, but since it's late, I'll just leave you with this video for now.

It was feeding time for the lorikeets. I asked the boys if they wanted to go into the room and feed birds. They weren't interested. I have no idea why. I tried talking them into it because I thought it would be fun! Still - no takers. Fine! I'm not so cool that I'd pass up this experience! I handed my $3 over to the nice lorikeet food distributor lady and opened the door. I hadn't taken two steps into the room before I was dive-bombed by a zillion screeching birds! It WAS fun but a little overwhelming at first. Dave, of course, got it all on video.

Afterwards, we drove to Trinity Jewelers to pick up my newly reset diamond and my new wedding band - my sweet hubby isn't making me wait 6 more days 'til our anniversary before I can wear it - he's the best!

My Oh-So-Creative child recently discovered Photoshop. Recently meaning "last night". Since then, he has created about 5 or 6 pictures with the limited tutorial Dave gave him in about 8 minutes. Here we have one of his masterpieces

"Squirrel in a Tree".

Camron is beyond excited because next Tuesday evening Nikki, who works with Dave and does all of the graphic design work for the company, is coming over to REALLY teach him how to use the program and how to do a bunch of cool stuff..... I may never be able to get on my computer again! This will totally count as art class for school :) I can only imagine the benefits of 1) being creative to begin with, and 2) learning how to properly use something like Photoshop at the age of 11. Perhaps he will create great and wonderful things for huge companies..... maybe he'll start his own company... I'm sure he'll make a gazillion dollars and send his parents on awesome trips as thanks for all of the love and support he's received throughout his life... all of the clothes washed, meals cooked, trips back and forth to taekwondo, diaper changes, midnight feedings, etc., etc.

And right now, and for always, I will love "Squirrel in a Tree".

A Corvette and Fungus

Happy Sunday evening everyone! It's late and I'm tired, BUT - I am going to keep this blogging thing going!

This afternoon our friend, Nick, stopped by to visit. He's babysitting his loaded friend's cars for a month or so, and he and Dave went out for a drive. Check out Big Sexy.

I guess if a grown man sits in a sports/muscle car, he feels that he has to make a muscle..... whatever!!!! :) Dave says he wouldn't pick this '04 Z06 if he were king (of somewhere other than my heart, that is)... he'd pick a Mustang or Porsche. I'm happy with Buddy.

And now, because I have nothing else to say, and because describing our quick trip to Wal-Mart would be boring..... I leave you with a picture of a ginormous mushroom that I found growing out by our fence this evening. I think I saw Smurfs....

It's been almost two weeks since I last blogged! Pathetic. I guess that just goes to show me how uninteresting and "Groundhog Day"-ish my life really is. A lot of the days seem the same: get up, take a shower, eat something, teach the kids, teach the kids, yell at the kids, teach the kids, eat dinner, an occasional tkd class, wash some clothes, clean up stuff, tuck the kids in, go to bed. I think from now on, if I don't have anything to post, I'll just take a picture of some random thing around my house and post that... I bet THAT could get interesting!

Dave's birthday party went well. The boys and I ran out to Wal-Mart and bought fixin's for cupcakes - chocolate with white icing and rainbow with chocolate icing. I dutifully made the cupcakes and am proud to say that I did not burn or scorch them and no one who ate any had any unusual side effects :) I have to say that I was very impressed with myself because I HATE to bake. And cook, but that's another story. The point is NO ONE DIED and I'm happy about that. My brother-in-law, Steve, ate about 18 cupcakes... I think the 18th one might have been what pushed him over the edge......

Anyway, we had quite a little party going. The boys had the dining room decorated with crepe paper and balloons. My parents came over, my sister and her family were here, and the wonderful Richert Family (minus Eaglescout, of course) all showed up to sing and bring cards and gifts and eat!

This past Thursday night, Dave and I decided that WE were going to cut the boys' hair ourselves. They were WAYYYYYY past due for haircuts and I figured that I could run a pair of clippers over their little egg-shaped heads as good as the next guy. So, we sent Cam down as the first guinea pig and cut his hair off! After the first couple of swipes through his hair we noticed that he was crying a little bit - poor kid, he thought we were cutting his hair like I cut Dave's - which we all know is REALLY, REALLY short! Bless his heart, he didn't put up a fuss or anything, he just sat in that chair thinking we were gonna make him bald! He's fine now, and he's not bald, and he now realizes that we had the #3 clipper hickey thing on and that his hair will not be cut as short as his dad's. Here's Ry going under the clippers:

I have to admit that the boys' hair turned out pretty well and I think that, after a couple more cuts, we'll have it down!

And now, this evening's story. Even though the Weather Channel was calling for rain, I put on my tkd uniform and hopped in the car at 4:30 to drive to good ol' Jeannette, PA, for our Demo Team Performance! On the way, it began to lightly sprinkle, then it began to DUMP rain! The poor windshield wipers could not keep up with the deluge. Still, we went on... it could, after all, stop at any time. After multiple sweeps of the block and phone calls home to see if Mrs. D. called to cancel the show, I saw Rob walking down the street. I had Dave pull up next to him and I jumped out. Rob and I walked down the street, sharing a rather small and flimsy umbrella that really only kept the tops of our heads dry, our shoes getting covered with the river of water running down the edge of the street, to find the entire Demo Team wedged under the awning of the liquor store. Needless to say, the show was cancelled.

On the way home, at the red light, we found ourselves right beside the Richert Mobile. We rolled down the window and invited them over for pizza - actually, Dave asked Wendi to drag race, but she said "no" and he figured pizza was a good alternative. So, the Richerts came over and we ate pizza. Camden and Benjy played with Star Wars stuff, there was video-gaming going on, and we introduced them to the Eye Toy.

Benjy was really excited to beat up the ninjas and he kept getting closer and closer to the screen in order to pummel them better. Wendi kept warning him to back up 1) so the camera could detect him and 2) so he didn't attack the tv. As you can see by the following footage, she found out that you kind of get involved when playing this game.

When it was time to go home to get ready for bed, Benjy was not quite convinced that he had had enough of bowling with Spongebob, so we let him and Camden take the games and camera home. As Benjy crawled in the car with his bag of goodies, he told me he loved me...... Love you too, Benjy! Play lots of Eye Toy so you sleep well at night and are calm during the day for your mom :)

Happy Birthday, Pookie!

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