Balloons!

Over the weekend, Colorado Springs held it's annual Balloon Classic. There are so many vendors and things to see that you could easily wander around for a few hours! A friend and I took our kids to see the balloons light up at night, and man...it was AMAZING! It was the first time I'd taken any night shots with my camera, but I don't think they turned out too bad. Especially for not having a tripod with me. Chasing 3 kids while juggling a camera and tripod did not sound like fun at all! I'm already looking forward to next year's Classic. The Husbeast should be home by then, so we can go as a family. He'll definitely want to chow down on one of the HUGE turkey legs they had for sale. Here are a few pics from the night:

So proud!

It's not big secret that I'm an atheist, and so is my hubby. Our girls probably identify that way right now, but not because we force it. If they want to go to a church, synagogue, or mosque, that's cool. When they are older, they can choose whatever religion they want, or none at at all. Anyway, this all leads up to a conversation I overheard in the car today. My oldest (who is 6) was teaching her younger sisters the Pledge of Allegiance. It went something like this:

Oldest: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under...well, I don't believe in God, so I'll just say Earth...under Earth, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

To say it made my heart swell with pride is an understatement. Not that she declared that she doesn't believe in God. She's 6, I don't think she fully grasps that yet. What made me so proud is that she thought about what she was saying, and didn't just go along with saying something she doesn't agree with. More than anything, I want our girls to be free-thinkers. I want them to question, I want them to make their own decisions. It seems like we are headed in the right direction, and that makes me so proud!

Wicked

I got a job! How cool is that?! To top it off, I work from home, which is awesome. Hubby is super excited too, which makes me feel...proud. :)

My camera has been getting neglected lately. It's that time of year, where everything is just super busy. We've been doing dentist appointments, meeting teachers, back-to-school shopping, and trying to maintain some form of sanity! Luckily, all this running around has helped keep our minds off the deployment. Oh, and I've lost almost 4 pounds in the past couple weeks! Yay!

I did happen to snap a picture of some crazy clouds the other morning. This is a view of the mountains off my back porch:



Awesome, huh?

Deployments Suck

That's pretty much all there is to say about that. :(

Impending Doom

So, once again I have let life get in the way of blogging. That's okay, it was time well spent. My fearless husband is about to deploy yet again, this time to a country to which he's never been. We've been spending every possible second together lately. You would think that each deployment would get a little easier, but they never do. Each time one rolls around, there's another kid (like the first 2), or the kids are older and realize what this actually means (like the last one and this one). This is our life and, aside from the deployments, it's a really good life...so I guess I can't complain too much.

It still sucks.

Learning Curve

I wrote a few days ago that I had gotten a Nikon D90. Since then, that thing has been practically surgically attached to my hand. This camera is amazing. Taking a great picture is easy to do right out of the box. Of course, I still got my fair share of blurry or almost-there-but-not-quite photos, but it didn't take long to start getting photos like this one of my oldest on the swing:



I love the way her hair is flying around her head. It's not perfect, but I'm getting closer! I've been having so much fun taking pictures that I haven't even attempted to tweak any of them in Photoshop.

One thing that has helped me tremendously is David Busch's Nikon D90 Guide to Digital SLR Photography. Man, this book is a lifesaver! After only 2 chapters, I feel a bit more at ease with the camera. Chapter 3 and beyond is where he really starts to get into the different settings. The pages are nice and thick too, so I'll probably be sticking this in my camera bag for reference without too much worry about destroying it.

Speaking of that book, it's time for me to sink myself back into it until the munchkins demand my full attention again. LOL Then maybe a trip to the park later for more pictures. What are your plans for this weekend?

Hello gorgeous!

I may or may not have a new toy to play with. And by "may or may not", I mean LOOK AT WHAT I BOUGHT! (More like, LOOK AT WHAT HUBBY BOUGHT FOR ME! LOL)


Photo courtesy of Nikon

That is my brand spanking new Nikon D90. I also have the lens that is attached in the picture, the AF-S DX Nikkor 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR. I had debated just buying the body and using the extra money towards another zoom lens other than the kit lens, but reviews I had read online said that the kit lens is actually pretty good. So I went with that one. Let me tell you, the Vibration Reduction? Awesome. I also bought this lens, which will be arriving today:


Photo courtesy of Nikon

That's the AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D. I really wanted to get the 1.4D, but from what I read online, I just couldn't justify spending another $200+ on a lens that I wasn't sure I would be able to tell a difference with. Maybe after gaining some more experience!

There's a few accessories that were purchased with the lens, like an extra battery, etc. I won't bore you with all those. However, when my camera bag comes next week, you'd better believe there will be pictures!

What have you bought lately that thrills you?

WIP Wednesday

I love to knit and do other crafty things. I also love to work on the house and remodeling/decorating. So why does it seem that nothing ever gets done?! I've decided that every Wednesday, I'm going to post progress pictures of my latest projects. Sort of an accountability. This week, I only have knitting to show. The first is a blanket I've been working on for my husband since October 2008. Not that it's that difficult, or that I'm quite that slow, it's just time-consuming. Because it is time-consuming, I feel like I need to sit down and work on it for hours at a time...which I never have time to do. So it sits in it's project tote and waits. It's time to change that! Here's where I am now:



I have about 25 inches done, and I'm aiming for about 60. So, it's almost halfway done. I love my husband, and he loves this blanket, so I'm going ot get it done for him. :)

The other thing I have going on right now is a pair of socks for our oldest munchkin. I had made her a pair of socks not too long ago, but they turned out to be too short in the foot, so they went to munchkin #2. That's the nice thing about having 3 girls! These socks are to make up for the others being too short:



There's not much to see right now. I just finished the toe increases, and I'm starting on the foot. This is going to be just your run-of-the-mill basic sock. Once I get a better feel for making socks fit the way I want, I'll venture into the wonderful patterns that I drool over on Ravelry!

Are you making progress on any projects?

Positive thoughts!

Here's a rundown of the craziness that has occurred lately:

1. Pasha has a complete tear of her ACL, which is an injury that needs surgery to fix. A $3,000 surgery! Holy hell. She has to wait for a few months, but she'll have it fixed and be back to new again in no time. Luckily it doesn't seem to be causing her any pain.

2. A company we have an account through decided that they were going to take a $300 payment out of our checking account, even though we had already paid them for the month. Then they wanted to be jerks about giving it back.

3. On a somewhat funny note, my younger 2 daughters decided that my 50 lb bag of powdered sugar would be a great place to play this morning. Oh, and of course the dogs would love to have their bowls piled high with the sugary goodness. *sigh*

So, instead of being upset and stressed about all of the above, I'm going to think positively! I'm going to focus on things that make me happy and all the wonderful things I have in my life. My dog isn't in pain, even though she can't have surgery yet. We eventually got our money back into our checking account. I have 3 wonderful little girls and a fantastic husband, even if they all can (and do!) drive me crazy sometimes. There...I feel better already!

What's driving you crazy?

Poor Pasha

My beautiful wonderdog, Pasha, went to the vet today to have them look at her paw. She has been limping around for a day or two, and we wanted to have it looked at. This also gave us a chance to check out the local vet that I've heard so much about. His name is Dr. Graf, and everything I've heard has been awesome. In this case, everything was true. He did an amazing job of explaining to me what was wrong and some of the different options. Pasha has a torn ACL in her rear left leg. :( All he could do for her right now is give us some pain meds and refer us to a doggie orthopedic surgeon. So on Wednesday we have an appointment with them to see if they can do anything for the pup. In the meantime, here are some pics of our former pound pup:





Send well wishes her way, will ya?

DROID!

I'm a horrible person and have already skipped a day. So much for 30 consecutive days of updates, huh? But I had a very, very good reason for it. That reason?


Picture from engadget.

Yes, I got a Droid. So did hubby. We've been playing with them since we first laid our hands on these magical phones at the Verizon store. Man, Blackberry has nothing on the Droid! It even lets me surf Ravelry, reply to individual forum posts, and update my projects page! I haven't tried uploading any pics yet, but I'm optimistic!

What are you super excited about today?

Ooooh, pretty!

Look who has a new blog layout! It's not exactly what I had in mind, but it's way better than what was here before. What do you guys think? So, I made it to Day #2 of my 30-day goal. I'm pretty impressed. :) Yesterday I mentioned the fact that we recently bought a house here in Colorado and promised a few pictures. Check out what we have done to the kitchen. This is what we started with when we bought it:





Yeah, pretty crazy, huh? We bought a foreclosure, and the previous owners had totally stripped the kitchen. They took the cabinets, appliances, sink, light fixtures...everything. That's okay though, because I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted in my head and that was just less demolition for us to do! So, after painting the walls and buying new, well everything, this is what we have ended up with:





We still have some things to do in there, but for the most part it is done. I love everything about it! Our next big project will be the lawn. We have next to no grass, which really sucks...especially for the kids. Okay, especially for me, because I have to do dusty laundry every day!

So, what projects do you have planned?

On being a slacker and having goals.

Yes, yes, I have been the ultimate slacker. Here it is, 2010, and I haven't even posted a single thing to my blog. Well, that's about to change. For the next 30 days, I am going to post something every day. I've been thinking a lot lately about how much of a procrastinator I am. For example, my super-wonderful-awesomely-amazing husband's blanket:



According to Ravelry, I started it all the way back in October of 2008. It was supposed to be a present for our 5th wedding anniversary. As much as I love this man, this blanket is just not one of my favorites. I love the pattern, love doing cables...but each row takes me 15-30 minutes to do. Now, if I just sat down and did 1 inch every day, I could be done with the darn thing in a little over a month. But no, instead I look at it while I'm knitting him a hat, or think of it while I'm knitting a new pair of socks for one of the girls. Well, last night I finally pulled it out and worked on it. The smile he had on his face was enough to make me want to work on that blanket 24 hours a day to get it finished! So, guess what I'm going to be doing today? LOL You guessed it!

Oh, and guess what? WE BOUGHT A HOUSE! Yup, you heard me. Maybe if you're lucky, I'll show you a few pics of the remodeling we've done so far and share some of my ideas for it tomorrow. Don't forget to thank a vet!

Almost 2010

There hasn't been much going on lately. We did the Christmas thing for the kids, hubby is taking some leave from work to spend some time home, and I'm still working on school stuff. I'm really trying to finish hubby's blanket, but it's just so time consuming and tedious. I know he'll be excited to see it finished though!

We've been thinking about buying a house here in Colorado. We really do love it here, and we're ready to finally buy a house instead of rent. We're hoping to pay off some bills with our tax return, then buy. I guess we'll see how that goes. We've been looking at new furniture and trying to get ideas for remodeling. I can't wait to finally buy a house and get to doing some projects!

Well, that's really all I have for now. There's so much that is about to happen, it's really exciting. I just wish it would hurry! Don't forget to thank a vet!

Realm of Empires

My husband has been playing a game he recently discovered on Facebook called Realm of Empires. He is a fan of RPGs, but usually doesn't go for MMORPGs, like World of Warcraft and the like. He really likes the Elder Scrolls series and games like that. However, RoE seems to be different. In RoE, you create your own village, recruit a military, and build up your buildings and defenses. There are different realms (he is currently playing on Realm 4), and each village is run by another person. The game is played in real time, so your silver mine is always producing, and you are always vulnerable to attack. There are also rebel villages that can be attacked and plundered of their silver. If a player remains inactive for 14 days, their village is considered abandoned, and it is easily looted.

Realm of Empires promotes a social approach to gaming. In one of the beginner's quests, it is encouraged that you join a clan. Joining a clan is an advantage, as they can provide support, both in money and troops. Most of the larger clans require that you remain active in their forums, and each has their own set of rules of conduct. The clans have alliances and non-aggression pacts (NAPs), so it is important to read the overview of each clan before deciding who to join.

Another unique part of RoE is that it allows you to decide how much (or how little, for those who work a lot or have other obligations) you want to play. A person can play on a single realm and only check their village once or twice a day to build their empire. A person who wants to play more can have a village on multiple realms and join an active clan, allowing them to play to their heart's content.

I know that hubby enjoys the graphics, but I have to show how nice they are. Instead of being campy little flash cartoons (think Farmville), the graphics in Realm of Empires are more refined. For example, here is an example of a village that has been built up quite a bit.:



In the above photo, you can see that each building has a number attached to it. This allows you to easily see what level each item is, so you can recognize at a glance which need to be worked on. It's quite different from a starter village, isn't it?



Another thing that I love is the fact that it is real time, so the village changes with the time of day. Remember the first village I showed you? Well, here it is at night:



My hubby really enjoys playing this game, and whatever makes him happy makes me happy. Don't forget to thank a vet!

Veteran's Day

Today is Veteran's Day, so I want to take the time to thank each and every person who is or has ever fought for our country. This holiday has special meaning for me, as I am a military spouse, and as such am constantly surrounded by the most amazing people doing the most amazing things. Especially my wonderful husband, who has given up so much to join the Army and fight. He's been deployed multiple times and is gearing up for yet another deployment, this time to territory that is unknown for us. Every time he leaves it is hard on him, hard on me, and very hard on our 3 little girls. But they know their Daddy is a soldier and has an important job to do.

Many people don't know why we celebrate Veteran's Day on 11 November, so I'd like to share with you this article I found that explains it:

Back in 1918, in the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, a stop to hostilities was declared, ending World War I. An armistice to cease the fighting on the Western Front was signed by the Allied powers and Germany.

President Woodrow Wilson immediately proclaimed the day "Armistice Day," kicking off the annual commemoration on November 11. But over the years, with veterans returning from World War II and the Korean War, Armistice Day became Veterans Day — a day reserved to honor veterans returning from all wars. But 11/11 still represented the end of the Great War in the public's mind, and the date stuck.

In 1921, unidentified dead from the war were buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., Westminster Abbey in London, and the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The tradition to honor those killed in the war but never identified continues every year in the U.S. The ceremony is held at 11 a.m. at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

Congress designated Veterans Day as a legal holiday in 1938.

For those of you who don't know, the picture at the beginning of my post is of the 4th Infantry Memorial at Fort Hood, TX. We were stationed there for 4 years and left in June. Keep those injured and killed in the recent tragedy there in your thoughts. It's hard enough sending your loved one off to war...we don't need to worry about their safety at home too.

Don't forget to thank a vet, today and every day.

Eeeeeek!

Okay, this is going to be short and sweet. I am freaking out! My mom will be here in just over 12 hours for her visit, and I need to CLEAN! There's laundry to be done, bathrooms to clean, and I still need to vacuum all the dog hair out of the cracks in the couch so she doesn't smother while sleeping in the sofa bed. Gaaaahhhhhhh! Time to crank up the iPod and tackle one room at a time, I suppose.

Oh, and I seem to have lost one of my freaking awesome Pasha stitchmarkers. Wahhhh!! I don't know where it could be! I'm hoping to find it while I'm cleaning the living room today. It was on my needles, but it must have slipped off when the girls were moving it around. *sigh* Oh well, time to clean! Don't forget to thank a vet!

Excited!

October is over, and now November is here. This year is just flying by. Some exciting things have happened lately, or are about to happen. First off, Munchkins 1 & 2 started Learn to Skate on Saturday! It's so funny watching them learn to ice skate. Bella did really well, and was even standing up on her own after falling down by the end of the lesson. Brooke...well...she really liked being on all fours and acting like a puppy. :) At least they had a good time. I just hope that Bella gives more of an effort next time. She tends to just give up when she can't do something the first time, and it's rather frustrating.

Another super exciting thing that's happening is Mom's visit! It'll be her first time to Colorado. I can't wait to have her out to visit. This will be the first time she's been to visit us since Kaelyn was born. We've been out there, but it's so much fun when she comes to us. She'll get here on Thursday, and I CAN'T WAIT! Well, I think that's about all for now. Lots of cleaning and laundry to do before Mom arrives! Don't forget to thank a vet!

Buyer beware, but I don't care!

Today I received my very awesome Reebok Authentic on field jersey in the mail. I got it off eBay for $50 (including free shipping), even though they retail for $300 everywhere else. Well, now I know why. Can you spot it?


If you are a true Steelers fan, you will realize that Polamalu's name is the wrong color. Rather than being bright Steelers gold, it's a more light brownish/dark gold. I can't really complain, because I got it for 1/5 of the retail price. At least it's not #43 with Ward's name above it or something! LOL At first I was pretty disappointed, but now I'm okay with it. I mean, I have an authentic jersey that I would have never been able to afford...even if it is a bit off. That just makes it unique, right? At least I can show my Steeler pride! :) Don't forget to thank a vet!

Look what I got!

I got the most amazing stitchmarkers from Weeones in the mail today!  She made them based off pictures of our Anatolian Shepherd, Pasha.  I think they look amazing, and I am sooo thrilled to death to have them!  Eventually I would love to have her make some more for me in other poses, and I would also love these pink woolly ones.  What better way to have my own flock of sheep than to have pink, fuzzy ones!  So, are you ready to see what I got in the mail?  First, a picture of Pasha:

Now onto the stitchmarkers!

Here's one on the Unicorn socks I'm working on, for size comparison.  Those are US 2 (2.75mm needles).

Don't forget to thank a vet!!