long time no update...

What happens is I don't update for awhile. And then I feel like I have to explain everything that happened since I last updated and well the I get all kinds of overwhelmed.

So this time I am not going to do that.

We did go on vacation since the last update but believe it or not I was so busy enjoying my husband, entertaining a little one and being on vacation that I managed to not take a whole lot of pictures. But someday I will post about that little adventure. 2 weeks. 5,000 + miles. A 16 month old. It was awesome.

The other day we went out to the beach because there were crazy waves. We missed the super crazy waves but still enjoyed the remnants of a storm in Alaska that brought some amazing waves to our coast.

Here some pics from our adventure. I love life on the coast.

15 Months

Mr. Titus celebrated his 15 month birthday earlier this month on August 11.

It is hard to believe that our little man has been in our hands for 15 months and even harder to believe that he has been in our life for almost two years.

We've been doing great as a little family. He's still a fantastic little kid developing his own little personality every minute of the day. As soon as I make the prognosis that he's a "strong willed child" he becomes a mommy please quick obeying kid. (although as I typed that paragraph he managed to get the DVD player open.) He's not talking yet but is so busy in so many other areas that we are not concerned.

I've been enjoying my photography hobby immensely. I've been plugging along part time at work and Brion has been BUSY working full time.

I enjoyed a 50mm 1.4 lens I had rented and recently been borrowing a 50mm 1.8 lens to try and purchase from a friend. I wasn't sold on the 1.8 probably just because I was so in love with the 1.4 but know the $250 price difference between the two means the 1.8 is much more likely to be in my bag well before the 1.4.

So like I said I wasn't sold on the 1.8 till I snapped these of my little model. He is truly my inspiration.

Sights of the Fair

I truly had a good time snapping some pics of the fair sights. Eventually I will get up a seperate blog for pics but in the mean time enjoy.

Award Winners

Our Favorite People that we got to spend quality time with at the fair. Well they are pretty handy in the quiliting deparment among other things. Among three of the family members they had nine entries in the fair. They were all winners. Each one had a pretty blue or red ribbon attached to it.

To The Fair

The Spores visited the Coos County Fair this week! Much to our surprise it was not super hot and we had an incredible time. We watched one of our lovely young ladies from our youth group sing in the local Teen Idol competetion, she did an incredible job and it was such a joy to watch her. We also had an awesome visiting with my most favorite people in all our dear town, the Adams family. John, Candy, Callie and David are four very dear people to our family and it was awesome to share some time with them. We will definitely be back next year!

And this is my super hero. This is an amazing young lady, who babysits Titus in such a way that I wish she could do it year round. She comes to my house and takes such good care of him and the house. She remembers to do things I don't. Like put sunscreen on the poor kid.

This is Titus super hero. He might not know it yet - but soon Titus will follow this young man around every where he goes.

This ice cream cone - not a good idea.

Brion found plenty of students to torture.

And this what our tired little man looked like after a whole afternoon at the fair. Dazed.

More practice... Chloe

Chloe so graciously let my dear friend and superb photog Ashley drag her out the beach so Ash could get in some scouting for an upcoming wedding this Saturday. And I got to play with Mr. 50mm 1.4 who will be in my possesion until Tuesday, July 28th unless I decided to extend since Mr. Brother is coming to town on the 29th.

Here's my shots. Shooting with the 1.4 takes some practice. And I still need the practice that's for sure. My pics were not as sharp as I wanted them to be and mostly because I wanted to shoot at 1.4 the whole time. The depth of field is so shallow that you must know exactly where your focus point is at and be exactly in that range. At least I think that was my problem. Some of the sharpest pictures I took were at 3.2 and 2.8. It is such a fun process to learn. I desire to be so good so quick, but I do so know that I will enjoy looking back and seeing my improvement.

Camp and Sand or Camp Sand or Sand Camp

We went to see Dad at camp today.
There was sand.
After a half attempt to keep Titus controlled.
He found the volleyball court.
Or giant sandbox.He plopped down and played.
This meant that he was still for a moment.
A HA! He is happy & entertained!
And then he promptly ate a handful.
It is like he forgets that it doesn't taste good.
Later, he sat down and bent over putting his face in the sand as if to lap it up.
Remember the story from the Bible about the people who chose to lap up the water like dogs vs cupping it and bringing it thier mouths.

Well my dear child, tried both with sand.

Edit: GOT THE PICS TO POST!

In the end he had a snack. A dirty snack. He met a cute little 3 year old girl who told her dad that "the baby was yucky" which I quickly agreed! And then found this group of junior high boys that were digging a hole "to china" and my little man tried to fill it back in and was quick to try to get in on the action.

We love going to camp on Thursday's and look forward to the year that we'll be out their with Daddy for the week. Maybe next year! But now it is time for Dad to come home!

Practice - Chloe

There is a certain something special about working in Children's Ministry. You fall in love with the kids around you. Deeply. See when I moved from Bellingham down here, I wasn't convinced that I could love kids the same here as I did there. I still remember the names of a lot of kids from Bellingham but the memories are distant and I don't imagine they remember much about me and that is ok. But here on the coast there are some kids whose memory of them will be burned in my soul forever. Certain PK's among a few and then there is Chloe. My dear sweet Chloe stole my heart from the beginning. I love her. And I most certainly can count on this fantastic 10 year old for so much. She is a fantastic dancer and I look forward to following her dance career for years - her contemporary solo of I Can Only Imagine moved me to tears earlier this year. It was special to me in so many ways. Tonight she let me practice portrait photography! Oh bless her! She has the most incredible blue eyes and was such a trooper. I am sure you will see her again in my practice and she was a fantastic little model for me and my friend Amey as we practiced our photography skills. Thank you Amey for a wonderful evening!

This was my first "practice shoot" and at some point in the shoot I put my ISO on 400 and never changed it back. It is a shame the light was lovely and I did not need it, so pay no attention to the obvious grain. I am learning. AND how I have come to despise my little 1gb CF card - it is a little pathetic all 116 raw photos it can handle and it is a slow little bugger. I see a 4gb in my future! Oh, but how I enjoyed learning by doing, where should the light be and where should the subject be and what is good light and what is a good backdrop - I have so much to learn. Changing my focus point, metering, shooting in actual manual not just aperture priority. Finding my personal exposure preference. I'm loving it! & I am incredibly thankful for my photoshop CS4 and raw shots! So much fun.

I made a big step today - I rented a 50mm 1.4 lens it will be here on Friday and oh how I will wait with baited breath till it comes that day. And off shooting again I will be. I must find more practice subjects! Any takers?

This is my absolute favorite picture of the day and one of the first ones I took. I fell in love with this blue wall and Chloe's sparkling blues are just wonderful!

And a little dancer she is! She loved jumping for us. Again - I love this blue wall!

And the many faces of Chloe. Thanks again girl! Love ya!

97 Years

Today is my Great-Grandmother's ninety seventh birthday!

I believe if you live to be 97 you should get to eat cupcakes instead of boring cake. Not all cakes are boring, but the kind I make are. So Titus and I started the afternoon by making cupcakes and since Titus is in super clingy mode he stayed right by my side through the whole thing. And he loved sitting on the counter. I managed to not leave him to unattended. If he hadn't fallen off a chair last Friday and given me a near heart attack I would have let him stand on a chair in the kitchen. But nope, with that reasoning I sat my child on a much higher counter.

And here is the star of the show. My 97 year old Great-Grandmother. I will be 29 this year. For 29 years I have been blessed with a great-grandmother in my life. This one was just like a grandma to me growing up, we went to the beach, we played card games, I had sleepovers at her house. I have wonderful memories of her and her house in California and the dear town of Cayucos will always hold an incredibly special place in my heart. You know the smell of wet on warm asphalt. That smell takes me directly back to 5 years old and Cayucos. My great-great grandmother passed away when I was about 7 years old. I don't remember her much and I don't expect Titus to remember his great-great grandma like I will but I am so thankful that his great-great grandma will remember him. Dottie - thanks for kicking it with us for so long - wishing to spend another birthday with you in another 52 weeks

Blueberries

We spent most of the day inside today, this was not my little man's choice although it did not clear up until the afternoon somtime. Not sure exactly, I gave up looking outside pretty early in the day. The day was much wasted with nothing done - nothing accomplished. Would have to say the Monday #2 with out Mr. Husband was not very exciting and kind of sad. Titus spent, what felt like, 75% of the day on my lap. This is not like him and I would have to say the he was not very excited about another day with just this Mom person. When he napped I napped, since I still refuse to sleep more than 5-6 hours a night. Come about 5:30 this evening - I gave in to my true desires (get out of the hosue) and Titus and I went outside to the backyard.

The blueberries are ripe. Well some of them. I am not a blueberry fan nor am I a professional blueberry picker. Not for any particular reason. And hopefully I learn to love them. BUT I do know it is my duty to pick them and to share them with my child. Titus has liked pretty much everything we've given him to eat and hasn't been to picky. There is some stuff that he likes more than others but he'll eat pretty much anything.

And blueberries are no exception. He couldn't get enough.

(BTW - I think this might be my absolutely favorite picture I have snagged so far)

Here is my harvest. And he just kept going in handful after handful.

I was waiting for BLUE mess everywhere but it never showed up. I was so impressed with his eagernees to keep eating them. He even started to pick them off the bush. I am so looking forward to out evening blueberry picking sessions. Can't wait to share them with Dad.

This is my little man, when I took the blueberries in to the house (I wasn't sure how many he should eat the first time around) he followed me. I could tell he had a tough choice to make when he almost followed me into the house thus giving up his outside time. He chose to just shut the screen door on me and stay outside and I snapped this picture through the screen. I love those little eyes looking up to me.

tootled around in the yard this evening

These probably won't be of much interest beyond the first couple. Ventured out in the yard to shoot in manual and because basically I NEEDED to take some pictures and the light outside was wonderful. Oh, and Titus loves to play/wander outside.

Believe it or not, but this is how my backyard ends. Titus is just beginning to discover it. It looks like we live in the jungle. We don't just backed up against a "greenbelt". There is trail there that leads to the street on the other side but it is starting to get over grown it doesn't get run through anymore. Titus will discover it eventually. Oh boy!

I just love his little face and his expressions. And he, well he loves rocks.

These look like fuchsias but the plant they are attached to seems to be growing up from the ground. I didn't think, or don't think, that fuchsias could grow from the ground up. Always seen them as hanging plants... but I suppose they had to originate somewhere. We shall see.

The rest are just pictures from around my yard. Nothing to exciting, except that I thoroughly enjoyed shooting successfully in manual. Yahoo!

pictures from the park

Yep. A mouth full of graham cracker.

He is my little explorer.

I love this picture. He isn't upset about falling, he's squinting because the sky is so bright. He was just laying in the grass being goofy.

Such a stoic little man.

This is just shortly after he ate a huge handful of sand. I looked over at him and he flat out bent over scooped up a handful and put it in his mouth. He made the same face he does when he eats something that doesn't taste that great. Luckily, he didn't go back for more.

I love his eyes.

Climbed up the big slide on my own!

a day in the life

Today, Titus and I went to the park and he played with Lincoln while Ashley and I could chat and take pics. Oh I see lots of fun in our future.

This picture is about halfway through the morning. This face literally describes pretty much exactly how I think my son feels about the camera. I shot maybe 75 pictures of the boys, maybe 15 included an actual face and ZERO included a smile from either one. I'm impressed at 14 months my child has figured out how not to smile for the camera.

I love this picture. There are so many things about it that I love. Titus and his buddy Lincoln. Lincoln is 7 months older and bigger than Titus but they are starting to love each other although they still just like to poke at one another. Titus is pretty sneaky about it but he watches what Lincoln does. My little man was pretty apprehensive about walking on the bridge. I have no idea why. But after watching Linc run across it a couple of time, he took to crawling on it and then walking. My other favorite thing about this picture is the two strollers in the background. Looking at this reminds me of where my life is right now and how absolutely wonderful it is.

Later that afternoon, Titus went over to his Grandpa and Grandma's. I had a couple hour break where I could have napped but instead cleaned the downstairs. Titus returned with a couple bumps on his noggin. I am just torturing my mom by sharing the pics.

These are a few of the carnations that are sitting on my dining room table. My husband brought them home for me Sunday afternoon. He is at camp and it is just torturing my soul. We have a thing - when he is away from home he calls at night, usually late and prays with me and says Good Night - well he didn't call last night and he called early this evening to say he couldn't call at night this week. Oh, my little heart just broke. Oh and yes they are carnations and once upon a time I despised these cheap flowers, but now have fallen in love with their simplicity and longevity.

And tonight after the Titus man went to bed. I busted out the crafty stuff and made this card. The beauty of it is that my picture makes the card look so much greater than it really is.

Oh! And Titus pooped in the bathtub tonight. This is the second time this has happened. And once again Brion is out of town. I am beginning to think that this is my little man's way of acting out while Daddy is gone. Lame.

More...

So I enjoyed shooting some pics tonight, amongst socializing during the Ice Cream Social. Titus had a mini-meltdown when he woke up from his nap so we were late and I was stressed.

I just want to shoot and learn - shoot and learn. Titus is my only model. To scared to ask anyone else and he won't sit still long enough for anything. Thankfully tonight some kids kept his attention for me for a few minutes before they got in the way.

Got several that I will keep. Played with some actions in CS4. Love it.

My little man. I am so thankful for him and his precious smile filled with joy.

And this last one is my favorite. No - you can't really see his face. But I just love the way the light is hitting his hair and since I know him I know what his little mind his up to. I just love this kid.

loving my new (used) rebel xt & it is loving me too

There is an awful lot to remember and I must remind myself that the camera has only been in my hands for a few days. I accidently shot a bunch of shots with my ISO at 800 so they were grainy, I accidently shot in jpg not raw for far to many, I had hard time with some shots the other night but I had hit the timer button instead of the one shot button (secretly I thought my camera was broken, it wasn't), and now must remember what all the dials do in all the different modes. Good thing is just typing about it is making me want to go downstairs and play with the camera some more.

so far i've just been trying to master the manual (or creative as the manual calls them) controls. I've been having so much fun. Just keep rereading the manual and practicing with the camera.

I'm taking it with me to the park tonight (Church Ice Cream Social) but I am pretty sure the

light will be worthless (look at me pretending to know what I am talking about already).

Here are a few so far. Nothing too exciting. But hopefully more exciting things are to come.

The outside shots are just me discovering the joy of my aperture and focus points and I am

sure more but I can't remember all I was learning at the moment.

Meet my models - in the back is C for Camel, in the middle is D for Dophin and in the front is N for Night Owl.

These are our not so blue blueberries. But they are coming!

And this is my son. These are editted shots and my over critical eye sees so many things wrong with them that I'm having hard time posting them.

Look for lots more in the next two weeks - the husband is away at camp!