Book Year in Review

I (Julie) always thought I’d be able to read a lot when I became a stay-at-home mom and then finished school. Sadly, that’s not the case. I usually get interrupted roughly every 45 seconds. But I have managed to read a few books this past year. Here’s a little review for those book-lovers out there.

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly  By Anthondy Bourdain

I got less than 2 chapters into it before I returned it to the Library. Nasty in language and context. A must-NOT read.

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible  By A.J. Jacobs

This book was fantastically creative and funny. The author is Jewish but never really lived his, or any other, religion. He decided to read the bible and follow the hundreds of laws contained therein. He captures your attention from the first paragraph and never lets it go. Hilarious. I laughed out loud on almost every page.

The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World  By A.J. Jacobs

I thought the first book I read was so great that I immediately read his other book. This time, his quest is to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in a year. When I was in elementary school, I was often found reading our encyclopedias for fun at home. So this topic really appealed to me. He again made me laugh through the entire thing. He’s very engaging. If you want a couple of really fun books, here they are.

The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History  By John M. Barry

I first saw this book in the airport a few years ago and was intrigued, seeing that I’d never even heard of the deadliest pandemic in history. I’m not sure how that one slipped by. This book is very involved and covers not just the story of the influenza, but the back-story and all that was going on in the U.S. and world at the time. It’s not really a quick read, as it gets into a lot of scientific detail, but I did learn a lot.

F5: Devastation, Survival, and the Most Violent Tornado Outbreak of the 20th Century  By Mark Levine

Pretty interesting, but it wasn’t really my style of reading. The author continually jumped between individual accounts to create a whole account of one night’s outbreak of 148 tornados across the central United States. I will say this, I’ll never hear about another town being hit by a tornado without thinking more about the terror that those poor people lived through.

The Ghost Mountain Boys: Their Epic March and the Terrifying Battle for New Guinea—The Forgotten War of the South Pacific  By James Campbell

I picked up this book for Rob, but I ended up reading it instead. I’ve always enjoyed learning about World War II but don’t know near as much as I probably should. This book was interesting in that I learned how much suffering these soldiers endured for no credit. I wouldn’t highly recommend it, I didn’t think the author did a fabulous job wrapping things up. I kept thinking there was going to be something else, but it just ended without any closure. Maybe that was the point. I’m not sure. 

Geography: A Textbook

I’m still reading an old Geography textbook I bought at a used book sale. I love reading about people and places, even though it’s not a very fast read. I got a little impatient and started reading other books, but I will keep going back to this until it’s finished.

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder  By Richard Louv

This is the book I’m currently working on. I find it very fascinating. The author talks about all the benefits (physically, socially, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, and mentally) of children having free-play out in nature. I’ve always believed that being outside was good for the soul; I can feel it whenever I sit in the sun or feel the breeze or play in the dirt with the kids. We can all feel our mood improve and we feel closer to our Heavenly Father when we’re among his creations. This book is a little detailed and somewhat repetitive, but a great book for anyone, especially parents.

Wow! I’ve read a lot more than I had realized! I currently have 7 other books on my list, but as you may have noticed, every book I read is non-fiction. I have a hard time (okay, REALLY hard time) reading something that is made up. Rob and I have discussed this at great length since he loves fiction, but I just don’t get it. Why read something that’s unreal when you can read interesting and amazing TRUE stories? I’m sure I’m missing out on something, but I’m not sure what. Rob says creativity, character development and involvement, and fun.

Here’s the question for all you serious literary minds out there, some of which have never commented here before (We both know who you are!). The last fictional book I read was a decade ago. It was The Grapes of Wrath and I hated it. I’m willing to give it another try, though. 

SO…what fiction book should I read???

A few caveats: It MUST be well-written, intelligent, thought-provoking, and interesting. Something that will make me second-guess my current view of novels.

For all of you who do enjoy reading novels, please don’t take this post to be a knock against you. It’s all about personal taste and I really do feel like I may be missing out on something, that’s why I’m asking for suggestions and/or comments.

Thanks!!

 

Friday Night

This is just a photo I took last month. Is the exposure too dark? I can’t decide.

It’s Friday night and the boys are camping. Gotta say, I’ve been looking forward to this night for a few weeks now. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t revel in the constant crazy 3-year-old boy noise, NoIsE, NOISE (said like the Grinch), but a little stillness is nice sometimes. Madeleine and I are joining them tomorrow for an afternoon in the canyon.

We heard a funny story the other day from a primary teacher (not Nate’s). He and his wife were sitting in sharing time listening to the lesson and his wife felt something weird. She looked down and Nate was on the ground licking her shoe!!!!! EEEWWWW!!!!  HAHAHA!!! I guess he entertains them all the time in church. 

Madeleine and I enjoyed a long night out shopping. It’s so much easier when you can strap them in. We had plenty of things to buy on our list but didn’t find a thing. I even had money to spend! Hate when that happens. She tried on tons of shoes, which she likes to do, but we didn’t find anything that fit. We never do. She has super narrow feet and unless I want to spend more on her shoes than on my own, she just has to go barefoot. Good thing it’s summer.

I can’t think of anything that’s new with me or Rob. We’re just as happy as can be and glad to have each other.

Happy weekend!

Boise With Breanna and Fam

The first weekend in April we ventured up to Boise for Rob’s sister’s senior piano recital at Boise State University. She’s worked incredibly hard and we wanted to go support her and congratulate her on this huge accomplishment. She had over an hour of memorized pieces to play including Rachmaninoff’s Concerto #2! One of my favorites ever! Her performance gave me chills.

Before the recital, Rob and I had some time to explore downtown Boise on our own little photowalk. We had a great time wandering around and ate at a great Greek restaurant. Then we picked up the kids and headed just out of town to the Idaho State Penitentiary. When I was planning the trip, I suggested it to Rob and he full-heartedly said YES to this little venture. He was so excited to get some creepy pictures. Weirdo.

We had a great time there. The kids were able to run around at their leisure without me worrying about where they were; afterall, they were in a prison yard…hehehe. How convenient.

Rob and I have been to Alcatraz and we both agree that this little place is JUST as impressive and cool, yet tons less expensive. There were many buildings we were able to wander in and out of including the armory, which has a substantial exhibit we wish we had more time to check out.

Here are the pictures.

We had such a fun time with the family, too. Nate and Madeleine love their cousin Joseph and had so much fun playing together. We really wish we could get together more often. Maybe this summer we’ll take the drive up again.

We love the Russell family!

What the Crap? You’re saying that Foto Friday MOVED!

In a word, Yes.  We moved the foto friday and photography stuff to blog.rjsnowphotography.com. We are trying to generate traffic on our photography site and also don’t want all that traffic to come to our family blog.  Perhaps you see the problem.  However, I think this will all work out nicely for everyone. 

So what do you do?  If you typically visit the blog using a web browser, just add one more site to your daily routine blog.rjsnowphotography.com.  If you use an rss reader, here is the link to the feed to add to your reader (such as feeddemon or google reader). If you use our email subscription service then you will receive a confirmation email asking if you would like to receive updates for the new blog.  Confirm the email if you would like to receive our photography emails  or ignore if you would rather not.  Please leave any questions in the comments.

If you are looking for the most recent foto friday post, you’ll find it on the new blog here. 

For some unknown reason, a recent post about Julie’s Nephew Greg was not sent out in the rss or email.  Please find it here.

Have a Great Weekend!

Pics & Stories

 

Here are a bunch of fun pictures we’ve taken of the kids over the last month or so.

The first set is of the kids playing outside.

The second set is of the kids in their Easter outfits.

The third set is a couple of funny shots of Rob. Make sure to expand the description on the second picture so you can read it all.

Some stories:

• The other day Nate was being very quiet in his room. After asking a couple of times what he was doing and him replying “Nofin,” I checked on him. He was laying in bed and I asked him if he was okay. He said, “Yeah, I’m just waiting for dad to come home.”
• After having to have his blood drawn again for more tests because his white blood cell count was low, the doctor concluded that Nate just had/has a viral infection that’s running its course. Okay….wonder how much that little bit of info is gonna cost us. And I’m bugged because the doctor wouldn’t even talk to us the three times he needed to after Nate’s original appointment. He just had an assistant talk to us even though we requested to talk to him twice. Yeah, we’re getting a new pediatrician.
• Yesterday, on his own accord, Nate used his foam letters to spell out words he saw on his toy. He spelled turkey and goose. How great is that?!
• Madeleine is a little spit-fire sometimes. If we tell her no, she’ll act all defiant and grab or step on something angrily. It’s pretty funny and we can’t help but laugh.
• She’s finally starting to like the bath again. Madeleine went through a phase where she’d scream and try to climb out every time we stuck her in the bath, even if just her feet got wet.
• Some of the words Madeleine now says are boo, ball, baby, and bear. Notice a trend?
• Her favorite games are Boo, Chase, and Sliding.

Working in the Garage

Last Saturday afternoon Nate and I undertook a project in the garage. We don’t have a ton of storage space in our home and for some time we have wanted some shelving in the garage. We had some old white laminate wood just sitting around in the garage that was perfect for the job. Nate and I went to the hardware store to pick up some metal brackets (the typical kind with 3 holes for attaching to the wall and three for attaching the shelving), normal 1.5” wood screws to attach the metal brackets to the wall, and some 0.5” wood screws to attach the shelving to the brackets. We had a good supply of drywall anchors on hand so we didn’t pick up any of those. We were ready to go.

We spent the first little while moving stuff around and planning where the shelves would go. Finally we got out the safety glasses and the power tools. I placed my tool box a few feet away for Nate to sit on while I operated the circular saw. He got his sunglasses out of the car so he could have safety glasses too. :) The circular saw produced a large amount of sawdust (Nate initially thought this was sand) and a fair amount of manliness.

To attach the brackets to the wall with the maximum number of screws in the stud I slightly offset the bracket so one of the top screws and the bottom screw both anchored to the stud behind the drywall. The other screw at the top of the bracket received an alligator-type wall anchor. We used a level to keep all the brackets in line. Nate was in charge of the screws and kept a fresh supply coming (most of the time at least). After a quick primer on ladder safety, Nate was very proactive about reminding me to be careful. What a great time we had together on our quick little Saturday project. This shelving should really help de-clutter our storage closet upstairs. Sweet!

The picture above is not from our project but it does show how much fun we have together.  I look forward to many projects that Nate and I will work on together.  :)

Gregarious Greg

A few weeks ago my (Julie) nephew turned 19 and Rob and I wanted to take some fun pictures of him. Greg, as you can see from the pictures, is hilarious. He has so many good qualities about him, but some of my favorites are that he’s sincere, fun, a great giver of hugs, has the cutest smile and set of dimples, a jokester, great with kids, and is thoughtful of others.

He’s very photogenic and we wanted to capture some of his many facial expressions. It was really fun having such creative freedom with portraits. People usually don’t want anything too weird done but we knew Greg would love some tripped-out versions of himself.  We also took a few of him with his two brothers and with one of his sisters.

Greg’s cool and everyone knows it.

Foto Friday – 621

 

I (Julie) couldn’t decide which picture I liked the most so I thought I’d post them as a series.

These were taken in downtown Boise last month. Rob and I spent a morning wandering around on our own little photowalk. We were impressed by the cool/funky/historic nature of the area. There will be a few more pictures coming from that day.

To get the grungy, popping look, I first used the “Night Grotto II” preset in Lightroom. This was a good start, but I knew I needed to alter a few things to get the look I was going for. The preset added split-toning, turned the color saturation down, and turned up the luminance on the remaining color. Below is what the original picture looked like straight-out-of-camera. Then the picture after applying the preset.

Then I adjusted the vignette and turned up the black clipping and exposure until it was just right. I love how the red popped out and really makes the bricks look amazing.

So, presets are a great start. They help get the creative juices flowing. But it’s important not to get stuck there. Adjustments usually still need to be made in order to make your picture just right.

Have a wonderful weekend, everybody!

Easter…A Month Ago

Yeah, yeah, yeah…

Anyway, Easter was really great. Rob and I get more and more bugged each year with the commercialization of Easter. I mean, it’s EASTER. We worship and commemorate Jesus’ resurrection. I was at Toys R Us a couple of weeks before the holiday and their “Easter” baskets were taller than I am full of expensive toys and tons of candy. It sickened me. Granted, I am sickened by most marketing and commercialism, but that’s a whole other (really long) blog post.

So this year we kept a low-key, wonderful Easter which I hope will become a tradition. We invited our elderly neighbor, Janie, over for dinner and to watch the kids find some eggs and get pictures of Jesus to put up in their bedrooms. Simple as that. Nate and Madeleine were so cute! Here are our pictures.

And a very belated Happy Easter!!

My Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day was awesome. Besides the fact that I got a 2-hour nap, a homemade card with Nate’s new letter-writing skill, the dishes done and dinner made, and a new shelf built in the garage (so I’ll be able to step into my upstairs storage closet once again), Rob made me a custom photo book with sweet pictures and sweet thoughts.

There are many online services that offer printed books of your blogs and photos but there is quite a variation in quality out there. Rob decided to go through the service that our professional photo printer recommended, My Canvas. The price for a leather-bound, 20-page book is about $45.00, less for non-leather. Rob really liked how easy it was to insert and drag pictures to get the exact look you want. You can see an online version of this book here. Just make sure to have a kleenex handy.

This really was one of the best Mother’s Day gifts I’ve received. It took thought, effort, and love. I am always amazed how much my husband cares for me. I love you, Rob!

What’s Up?

Thought I'd post these funny pictures I took a while back. Turns out, Buzz Lightyear is a little camera shy.

First off, it's wonderful to have our computer back up. I feel so cut-off from the world without my email/internet.

Our trip to Southern Utah was grand. Highway 12 and the the national parks along it are seriously some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. We ran into people from all over the world who flew tens of thousands of miles just to see these places that are a mere 5 hours from our front porch. If any of you haven't been, you MUST!! I can't urge you enough. I was in awe the entire time. We're planning another trip down early this fall if any of you are interested in joining us. And a huge shout-out to Rob's parents for watching the kids over the weekend. Nate and Madeleine always have such a fun time when they're at the grandparent's house...and so do we ;)

Rob's convocation for his Master's Degree was yesterday and it was cool to see him all dressed up like Harry Potter. Everything went so smoothly until it was time to find somewhere to eat. There were hour and a half wait times everywhere! Rob kept deciding on different restaurants, but they all had the same story. Wouldn't be so hard except there were 2 sets of grandparents who can't walk and 2 little kids in tow so it got a little crazy. We ended up driving down to Sugarhouse to eat there and still had to wait! An hour and a half later we finally got dinner. Thanks to all our family who have loved us during all the many years of school. I'm super proud of my hubby and I know you all are, too.

I took Nate to the doctor the other day due to his incessant fatigue. Everything seems fine but the doctor had blood drawn to check for anemia, etc. It wasn't fun getting his blood work done. Nate had his blood drawn a few weeks ago for his regular endocrinology appointment and knew exactly what was about to transpire. I had him and Madeleine on my lap. I've never heard a higher, louder, longer scream come out of that boy...and that's saying a lot! BUT, his vein collapsed and they had to do it all over again! The nurse took Madeleine so I could hold Nate down better and he let out another soul-piercing scream. This really freaked Madeleine out so she decided to start wailing, too. Finally, it was done and we went and got a Jamba Juice. We'll get the results by the end of the week and will let everyone know what they are, but I'm pretty much counting on everything being fine. Maybe just a growth spurt.

Here's one funny story to end on. The other day I was outside playing with Nate and told him it was almost time to go inside. He told me he was going to see what time it was and ran inside. A moment later he ran back out and told me, "The clock says it's time to play outside." Cute.

Happy Birthday, Dianne!

Today is my sister Dianne's birthday. She turned 39, so that's 12 years older than me. She is married to Troy Denter and has 6 kids (Gregory, Elizabeth, Jacob, Brianna, Sarah, and Vance). They live in Taylorsville up the street from my parents.

Since there are so many years between us, I don't have many memories of us when I was real young, but I do have a few. I have more memories during my teenage years. Here they are:

• I remember her taking me to see Willow in the theater when I was pretty young. She met a guy there (I'm not sure she was supposed to…hehehe) and the movie totally freaked me out. I decided to go sleep in the car and wait for the movie to end. To this day, I will not watch that movie.
• She moved into an apartment down the street from my parent's house and she let me have sleepovers with her. She was so grown up to have her own place. During one of those slumber parties she showed me one of her favorite snacks, at least at the time. It was saltine crackers dipped into frosting. Kinda weird, but tasty!
• I remember getting the crib and everything ready when she was expecting her first baby. I was so excited! That feeling was repeated 5 more times throughout the years and I've just loved visiting her in the hospital after each one. She's shown me that babies are beautiful blessings.
• Speaking of babies...she has big ones. She is one tough lady. Greg was over 10 lbs!! She even had Sarah naturally at home and let me be there to witness it. It was such a cool experience. I credit her with diminishing my fears and anxiety about giving birth to my firstborn (NOT naturally) because I knew what to expect and that it was doable.
• She moved to Germany for a couple of years while her 1st husband was stationed there in the army. After they separated, she flew all the way back to us by herself with 2 toddlers. See...tough chick! We met them at the airport and I was so happy that she was back!
• Many of my memories revolve around her visiting with her kids at my parents house. A family function isn't a family function without her and her family present. With 6 kids, there have been a lot of blessings, baptisms, ordinations to the Priesthood, birthdays, etc. We're so blessed to be a part of all these important occasions.

Some other notable things about Dianne now:

• She loves to be around family and wants her kids to be close to us all, especially since they're not that much younger than us. We all just sit around and chat and enjoy each other's company. It seems we could talk forever before we ran out of things to say.
• She is a fantastic mother and she is raising fantastic kids. I'm not sure how she juggles all the stress and responsibility, but she does. She's fully present and participating in their lives. She teaches them to be responsible and obedient, to trust in their Heavenly Father and His plan for each of them, how to recognize and listen to the Holy Ghost, and the importance of family.
• She always tries to help those who have less than the ideal family and living situation. She has taken in quite a few of her children's friends who don't live in a loving home. Sometimes they've been in her home for a few hours, but other times it's been for months. She shows them that someone cares and loves them. She has provided meals, new clothes, and someone to talk to. It's also such a good example to her own children on how to care for others in need. I think that is an amazingly charitable gift she has and I know she's changed lives by her efforts.

Happy Birthday, Dianne!! I love you!!

Erica & Aspen

Some friends of ours invited us to dinner and asked us to take pictures of their daughters. We were more than happy to oblige!

Erica and Nate are so alike. They’re both energetic and happy. They have so much fun playing together, egging each other on. When Nate saw her pictures on my computer, he was so excited and said, “Hey! That’s Erica! Mom, I love Erica.”

Aspen is such a sweetheart. She was awake for most of the shoot, which is pretty amazing for a 2-week-old. It was fun to get to see her beautiful eyes.

If you’ve ever taken your kids to get their pictures taken at a photo studio, you know what I mean by stress! First, you have to get the kids clean and dressed and to the studio on time, then you end up waiting forever in a boring waiting area (aka, chairs in a corner), all the while you’re just praying that the baby doesn’t wake up and need feeding and your toddler/preschooler doesn’t run out the door, and then after you and your kids are at whit’s end, there is such a small window of opportunity to get a smile. Yeah, right…most of the time it ends up being a wet-eyed half-smile. It’s so much more fun and relaxing when the photographer comes to you!! The kids and adults can just play, visit, snack, and wait for the perfect moments to present themselves. Oh, the sweetness! Much better than the alternative!

Here are a few of the sweet shots. Remember to keep us in mind next time you want a fun-filled and relaxing photo session!

Side Note: We blurred out the last name on Aspen's announcement, so that's why it looks weird.

Foto Friday – Around the Corner

Taken with the Nikon D40 in Boise, Idaho on April 4, 2009. Aperture-Priority Exposure Mode, 18mm, 1/20 sec at f/5.0 ISO 800, -2.0 exposure compensation, Nikon Raw Format converted to Adobe DNG format. Edited in Lightroom 2.3

Here is another image from our trip to Boise a few weeks ago.  I (Rob) wanted this to feel really dark so I shot it at EV –2.0 (two stops darker than the “normal” exposure). I came across the dark hallway and got the shutters.  I had to photograph it so I could share that creepy feeling (your welcome). Much of the penitentiary is painted in a sickly green color which really works well with a lot of the photos I took. I slightly emphasized the greens and browns here (with split toning) and increase the blacks a little.  In fact, this image is very dark and I’m afraid that some of you may not really get to see it well without a calibrated monitor.  :(   I guess you’ll have to come by the house and look at the print.  :)  

It has been a crazy week with computer outages with failed hard drives on our main computer.  I’ve also had tons of issues with my work laptop and after two visits from HP (one motherboard and screen later) we decided to ship it out to HP for repair.  :(   Crazy Man!  I got the images from our Southern Utah Trip into Lightroom last night so you can expect to start seeing some of those images soon.  Sweet! Graduation today and Star Trek tomorrow.  The weekend is looking up!  Peace.

Beyond

I’ve (Julie) been sitting on this photo for months thinking I’d use it as a Foto Friday, but we have so many newer photos I can use, I decided to just post it for fun.

This picture was taken in the backyard of the house we stayed in while in St. George last October. The landscape is beautiful and so is the sky. I didn’t do much editing to this photo, as the colors are really that great. We would frequently go to the edge of the backyard and look beyond the fence. We’d look for bugs and lizards on the rocks and just enjoy our surroundings. It brings back good feelings.

For fun, I wanted to contrast the same picture with a different treatment; in this case, a darker one to contrast the bright, happy one above.

In this picture, Nate looks caged instead of curious and playful. The shadows on his face emphasize the jailed-in feeling. To me, it’s a sad picture. The possibilities are endless if he could just break free.

I wanted to show these two pictures to show the importance of editing your photos with both the subject and the mood in mind. What do you want the viewer to feel?

Rob and I went to an art gallery a couple years ago and there was a sculpted piece of a chair with a belt strung over it. In the explanation of the piece, the artist meant it to be cheerful and relaxed, like an evening after a long day of work. As it turned out, it ended up tormenting one of the viewers of the piece. Seeing the belt resting like that had reminded her of her abusive father.

Art is very subjective. That’s one thing I love about it. We hope that some of our photos aren’t just pretty to look at, but evoke some kind of emotion. Any kind, really. Art IS emotion.

Foto Friday - Her Special Day

~Written by Julie~

Obviously, it's not Friday. Last week was crazy. Between Nate getting sick (don't worry, not with the Swine Flu), our hard drive crashing (we knew this was inevitable, yet our new one is still in "Shipped" status. GRRR.), and then leaving on our awesomely awesome weekend trip to awesome southern Utah, it just didn't happen. Did you follow that sentence??

So, since I don't have access to my computer, I don't have access to any new pictures. But here is one that I really like that was taken last month when my sister was sealed to her husband and daughter. I have to give props to Rob for actually lighting and taking the picture, but I edited it and she looks like a little angel! I love the glimmer in her eyes, her rosy cheeks, and the drool on her chin.

To get this shot, Rob and I used our magical powers...
I could do a lengthy write-up on all the tech aspects of the shot, both at the camera and at the computer, but I don't want to. We got home a couple of hours ago and we're tired. If you truly want all the dirt on this shot, you can read it here.

A bientot.