The Merriest of Merry Times

I'm about over my "fit" of this morning. I'm still disgusted by what passes for "news" in this world, but I'm working through my feelings of anger and frustration. That's my New Year's Resolution...to work really hard at not popping a blood vessel over the abject stupidity of so-called "journalists". Yeah...looks like I may need to work a little harder at that, eh?
Anywho...as promised, here's some of our holiday pictures. This first one is from Thanksgiving. I only show it because it's me, in an apron, smiling. It bears posting, believe me. This is not a common sight, nor do I really ever expect it to be. Since I've joined Weight Watchers, I'm learning more and more about how to cook, but it's still not my greatest joy in life, that's for sure. Here's my three gorgeous granddaughters together. That's Skye on the left, Maddy Moose in the center with Kara on her lap. God, I love these three girls.

Here's Moose again, showing off her candy cane striped socks. She's such a character...born to put on a show.

This was taken Christmas Eve. Everyone was playing Skip-Bo. That's Skye smiling at us, Maddy concentrating and Russell (Skye's daddy), discussing Kaleb's next move.

Here's Moose again, showing us the gift she was going to open on Christmas Eve.

This is me with the three beauties again.

That's Jake opening his gift, while Nick (holding Kara) looks on, as does Randey there on the right.

This is Jodie opening her gift. There's a story behind those pajamas. Jodie loves gingerbread men - always has, as far as I know. She also calls Kara "Monkey" (yeah, well, most of us do...she kind of acts like a little monkey sometimes. lol). When Randey and I saw these pajamas at Target, he insisted that Jodie had to have them. They're sock-monkeys shaped like gingerbread men. The look on Jodie's face says it all. lol But she was a great sport and wore them that night.

Here's Kaleb, holding his Christmas Eve present.

Here's Nick, helping Kara open her gift.

This is Randey, holding up his present.

Here's Skye, showing off her Thomas rug (she loves trains). That's Russell sitting behind her.

Here's Skye, helping Kaleb open his gift.

And here's Skye, helping me open my gift.

And now here's Skye, helping Randey open his gift. Skye really loved unwrapping things (and she was pretty darn good at it, too!).

What holiday is complete without brothers wresting, right? This is Nick, showing Kaleb some brotherly love.And here's Maddy, acting like she was going to scratch Nick's face off in an effort to get him off of Kaleb. It didn't work. Nick just kept showing that love.

Here's Sydney the Wonder Dog...exhausted from all the Christmas Eve festivities.

Here's both trees and a big portion of the presents for everyone to unwrap Christmas Day.

This Christmas was, without a doubt, the greatest Christmas I can ever remember having. It was just perfect. And it would have been just as perfect without all those presents (although I think we all got some pretty cool stuff!!). Just having all the kids there and the 3 granddaughters was wonderful. Getting the group picture was fantastic, going shopping with Jodie was tons of fun, holding Kara for the first time, watching all three girls interact and enjoy each other....the whole entire thing was beyond perfect. Speaking of perfect, let me share this picture of Nick (he "adjusted" my computer so that this was my desktop background. lol).

That's my baby, in all his military glory. I can't begin to express how proud I am of this kid, really. I know what went into him earning those medals he wears on his chest. I know how much he's grown as a man and as a member of the greatest defenders of freedom on the planet. And I know what an all-around great person he is. (Do I sound like a mutha who's proud of her son? lol)

And finally, let me end with this little gem. It's my senior picture from high school. Talk about a blast from the past. I came across this a day or so ago when I was getting some things moved around in the guest room. I just started a page on Facebook to reconnect with some friends from high school so running across this picture just seemed fated. Check out the hair and the serious expression. Eeeeck!! LOL
Okay, that's probably enough pictures for now. Don't worry. I've got tons more to bore you with later (although no more of me in my youth, thankyouverymuch!). Happy January, everyone!!

Our Family Picture

Here's my little gang...our very first Christmas picture with all the kids and grandkids together. L to R: Maddy, Jodie, Nick, Randey (seated), Kaleb, me (seated), Kara (on my lap), Jacob, Desiree' and little Skye. I'm thrilled we were all able to pose without beating the snot out of each other. LOL

And here's that Pumpkin Pie recipe I promised all of you a while back (Hey! Better late than never, right?):

15 oz can of Libby's 100% Pure Solid Pack Pumpkin
3/4 cup Splenda
1/2 tsp table salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup Eggbeaters
12 fl. oz Carnation fat-free evaporated milk
1 frozen ready-to-bake pie crust

Mix sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves together in small bowl. Beat Eggbeaters and pumpkin together in large bowl. Add sugar and spice mix to large bowl. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. Pour into pie shell. Bake in pre-heated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temp to 350 degrees and bake 40-50 minutes more or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on rack for 2 hours. Serves 8. This comes out to 3 WW points per serving. Only 1 point if you bake it without the crust!

It's truly delicious. Thank you so much, Susan, for telling me about it. Can't wait to enjoy it at Christmas like I did at Thanksgiving.

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!!

Picture Taking 101: Next Attempt

I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, but the pictures seem to be getting better. lol Here's a close up of a rose rock. Are ya'll familiar with these? Growing up in Oklahoma, we'd find them everywhere. Nowadays they sell them in stores. This one looks like a rose from certain angles, but I've seen some that look like an actual rose dipped in red/brown paint. Anyway, moving on...I was able to get a close up shot of these glass items on one of the book shelves. That's a glass doorknob there in the middle. I have no idea why it's lying there on it's "head" like that...
Here's another one of our "Believe" signs. Annie's a big fan of the "believe" concept!! I can never look at that word without thinking of her and Izzy.
Here's a shot of my mister (and I'm not talkin' about Randey). I love this thing. Well, I love Randey, too, but this is about the mist making mister, not Big Daddy. *smile* I know these mist makers are "so last year", but I still enjoy mine...the way the mist rolls over the side is just cool.
Here's my Oklahoma paver. This isn't one of my better pictures, I just wanted to show off my paver. lol
Here's a picture of our confetti lantana. I love lantana. Randey? Not so much. I love the way it spills out of the flowerbeds onto the walkway or the grass. Randey thinks I should allow him to trim it up even with the edge of the bed. Goob.

Here's my Esperanza. I absolutely LOVE this plant. It's a perennial and every year, I look forward to seeing it bloom like this. It will bloom even more profusely as the year progresses and will continue to bloom until the weather cools down and stays cooled down. Don't you love these flowers? They're so bright and happy!
These next two are Randey's favorites of today's batch of pictures. I'm pretty proud of them myself. (Okay, so my standards are fairly low at this point, bear with me!)
The purple blooms are on our Rose of Sharon tree (also known as an Althea tree).
I was trying to get fancy with this next shot. It might have worked if I'd gotten lower with my perspective. I wanted the foreground lily to be out of focus with the back bloom being sharply in focus. I think if I had been at a lower angle, it might have turned out better.
So what do you think? Am I improving? Or is this just wishful thinking? lol

This is embarrassing...

I took my big honkin' camera off the dining room table (where I thought it looked quite nice, thank you) and attempted to take pictures around our house. I was "practicing" you see. Because practice makes perfect, right? I took pictures of flowers and trees, as well as random things inside the house. Afterwards, I raced upstairs, downloaded the chip and had a moment of utter confusion. 110 pictures?? I didn't take 110 pictures. Maybe 25 or 30, but 110? No way. Well...way. If you count the ones I took at Christmas when I was "practicing" back then, too. I just forgot to delete those at the time. So here it is, almost the end of May, and here's what was in my camera:

Hard to enjoy the magic that's the Christmas season when the temperatures are over 90, you know what I mean? And of the 25 or 30 pictures I took yesterday, here's 3 that came out almost alright. Yes. Three. That means my "success rate" is at what? 10 percent? Geez.


I just knew that I was going to suddenly be able to take magnificent pictures when I picked up that camera yesterday. But alas, looks like there's no way out of it...I gotta hit the books after all. This "practice" session wasn't a total waste, though. I have mastered the "delete" function. (Baby steps, Kari...baby steps.)

P.S. Today is the boys' last day of school! Yippee! Right? This is a "yippee" moment, isn't it? Yes, it is. I'm sure of it. We're going to have a great summer. And I mean it.

Way Over My Head

Last summer, I fussed and fussed about wanting a nicer camera. I wanted to be able to take pictures like a pro. My little point and shoot camera just wasn't up to the task. Actually, in retrospect, I think the operator of my little point and shoot camera wasn't up to the task but hindsight ain't helping me now. 'Cause now, thanks to my big mouth, I have a much bigger problem. Almost a year ago - yes! One. Whole. Year. Ago. - Randey bought me this: Isn't it something? A Nikon D80 - a truly magnificent piece of machinery. And that's not all. He also bought me this:
Lenses and gadgets galore. Woo-hoo! Unfortunately, Randey forgot that he's married to a technologically challenged individual who can't even program a microwave or TiVo with any degree of accuracy. I've had this entire set up all this time and I still don't know how to use this darn camera. I was overjoyed when I saw that our local community education office was offering a 6 week digital photography class for beginners. And then I found out that the class starts the week we leave for vacation. Ugh! However, my wonderful neighbor, Brian, loaned me a few books on photography so all is not lost. Sure, he loaned them to me months ago, but my procastination has prevented me from taking advantage of them until now (so it's not my fault, see?). But now the time has come. Our vacation is fast approaching so I can't put this off any longer...I'm going to have to break down and crack open those books. And hope Kaleb's around to interpret the tech-y stuff for me. (You don't suppose it's possible to actually electrocute yourself with a honkin' camera like this, do 'ya?)