wanna win a wii?

Here is a chance to win a WII! Wheee.
This is a blog i read about Personal Finance. Kind of ironic since we dont really have any mony but anyway it's celebrating a two year birthday or is it a blog-aversary.

In August this blog will be 6 years old.
I will not be giving away a Wii.
But bob is so you might as well stop holding your breath over here and just go there

Fix-it-friday with bonus randomness

yup, I'm an addict.

I'm also a borring and predictable photo editor.  But i have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep. And a 63 GIG video file to compress.

and I'm in Slovakia which is why you might think I was up at 2AM playing in photoshop. Not that that has never happened. Just not today.

Spell Check would like me to spell borring with one 'R'. I politely decline. It is more emphatic with 2

I am in charge of feeding and opening and closing the door for the goose-ducks and chickens. I will post pictures and more details later this weekend

married life

Micah: Look here's that rash (it looks like poison ivy or oak or something he's been putting aloe on it and that helps)
Stasi: Isn't it going away? Be sure and keep that clean
Like that's going to happen
do you want me to run and get some gauze and tape to cover that.
No we already have milk
milk?
Yes for the hot chocolate. Do you think we can have a bonfire tonight?
What? No
Are you going to call the FBI?

Rolling Stones

Image from http://www.wiseacre-gardens.com/

So, I was serious about the "rolling stone gathers no moss" I need to know your thoughts about what it means.
Is it a good thing to be a rolling stone? Or is it a good thing to gather moss. I MUST KNOW

Also, I'm collecting Questions this week for a FAQ newsletter. Comment or e-mail your questions about what you want to know about Slovakia and our work here. No question to big or small.

Or does no one care? leave a comment for that too.

I ♥ Faces - Silhouettes

Micah and I went hiking this weekend. We were looking for a thermal pool. We did not find it. I got this nice shot. I over edited it in PhotoShop.


Check out more Silhouettes at:

HUH?!

Today, if I understood correctly, a "Mutant Goose Duck" will arrive at the Ranch with the Chickens. 

I can think of nothing to add to that. 

A MUTANT GOOSE DUCK!! AAAHHHH!!!! Be afraid, be very afraid!!

fix-it-friday

I'm starting my day off with a little playing here. I could very easily become a fix-it friday addict.

Cropped to get rid of the headroom
PW's Bring on the eyes - Flatten
PW's Boost action with the zing layer at 50%
Copy Background layer blend mode to multiply at 32%
Flatten
MCP Touch of light Touch of Dark
Masked Light onto her face - 51% Opacity 33% Fill
Masked dark onto the background - 100%
Flatten
PW Quick edge burn and additionally masked out the center some with a medium grey

I think it's still a little orange or green or somehting but i need to get to work :)


I played some with de-saturation and selective color that I didn't keep track of what the settings or steps were because I didn't expect it to turn out so darn cute!

CHAINSAWS!!! (and the RSS)

*I'm cross posting from my other blog because I know more folks read here and i wanted to share this with y'all, sorry to those who get to see these twice. I also appologise for the fact that these pictures are 2 weeks old.*

Sometimes, pictures just speak for themselves. Like this story of how Micah put a hole in the side of our house with a chainsaw and how now our downstairs is full of sawdust and light!

it toatlly does not look like this at all anymore....justa  teaser to make you come back :)

As a completely urelated aside, I added e-mail subscriptions to the other blog. and I have TEN subscribers to my RSS feed here! Double Digits! i feel so special. I hae no clue who you are but HI RSS FEED READERS!! (come and comment. i'm jsut currious)
(and i can't spell and rarely care)

plus it cracks me up that RSS Stands for "Real(ly?) Simple Subscription" It's like Martha Stewart got hold of the internet! And that is a good thing!

I ♥ Faces – Week 19 – “Blurb Photo Book Contest”

I love this shot. Stevo & Ada didn't liek this becaise you can't see Stevo's face very well, but I think that His face his focus and the part of it that you can see are the best part of the shot. Of course it doesn't hurt that Ada is beautiful.

Check out more "best faces" at
I am submitting this photo into the www.iheartfaces.com Blurb book photo contest. If chosen, I grant I ♥ Faces permission to use my photo in a printed version of a book for commercial use and possibly advertising of a photo book on both the Blurb and I ♥ Faces web sites.

while posting this i had the weirdest sense of Deja Vu. And then I had deja vu of having deja vu. life is weird.

Also, I have a headache and a husband with a hammer. I need to focus on the fact that the door will shut easier now.

Fix-it-friday

This is totally escapism. 

I want a white sundress.

I just noticed that i made her left eye too light so she looks like one of those really cool kids with different colored eyes. Oops. Sorry

Here's what I did. In Photoshop CS3 

Image>Adjustments>Exposure:  exposure +1.3, offset -0.16, Gamma 0.84

Added a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer with a layer mask and de-saturated her dress.

Used the MCP Touch of Light Touch of Dark action. Twice.  Lightener her face and hair and darkened her dress and arms and the highlights in her hair.(I can't remember what opacity, but it wasn't 100!)

Cropped it somewhere around in here....

Added a Color balance adjustment layer and warmed it up. (by this point I really started just playing and stopped keeping track of the numbers :)) 

Flattened the image and Ran the MCP High def shaprening action masked out her face and hair. only 26% opacity

PW2 Sunshine action at 12%

Resized to make easier to upload.

Wow that was really a lot.

I tried one with a bleach action, but I liked it before better.

you can check out all the other cool edits here:

Also, I just had this conversation with Micah:

 

M- Look!! Nutella!

S- Are you eating that OFF A NAIL?!

-Yup, MMM, Klince! (slovak for "nail")

-Ew!

-Peace out. God be with you.

-You're a nut

-You're supposed to say "you too"

-and with you. 

-bye.

I have to disagree. Or, the post where I overuse the bold and italic buttons.

"Authorities said Zinkhan arrived while the Town and Gown event was under way and got into a disagreement with Bruce."
~from CNN.com (Article about the UGA Prof who shot his wife and 2 other guys and then killed himself. I already closed the article so I cant link. )

Can you get into a disagreement? I was under the impression that you have a disagreement. One could get into an argument, or even have an argument. But I don't think that disagreement is as versatile a word.

...

Of course, I said "arm-sleeves" until I was 14... And I thought that "the car needs washed" was proper English until I was a Senior. in College.

Your thoughts?

Anyone? 

Anyone?

I ♥ Faces - Laughter

Another having-a-bad-internet-week oldie but goodie for "laughter". I love these two this is right after they made it back down the aisle last October.

See more laughing faces at:

Curtains, Feedback needed

One of the first things I did when we arrived was borrow Angie’s sewing machine and make some curtains for our bedroom window out of a white sheet.

I am pretty proud of them, but they seem a bit plain. So I’m taking suggestions for what to do with them. I have a ton of ideas but am limited in resources (mostly because I don’t know the words to ask for most things).
They have to be able to close and open easily, because our bedroom window faces the parking lot but it is our only window and I like to have the light.
Maybe I should paint something on them, or find some colored thread and stitch some pattern or other on them. I just can’t get an idea that works for me. The best I’ve got is making a series of multi colored button holes and threading the ties through them instead of around. What do you think? Should I just leave them plain?

I ♥ Faces - Hats

I was so excited last week to get picked in the honorable mention (and by Nate from the image is found! I blog stalk him! and He LIKED my shot!!)
I wanted really to make a good showing this week. But, the internet is slow. And there is a large hole in my downstairs wall. So, I can't upload the really cute shot I have of Zoe in her hat on Sunday. Or the funny one I took of micah in the old fedora that we found on top of the wardrobe. And I can't even try and fix the colors and re-upload this old one from my flickr archives.... But honestly, I still love this shot. Bad white balance and all. These two are so cute!

Kilts....I'm Just Sayin'

I just wanted to share these pictures from about a month back. These were taken out of our apartment window in Grove City. Not the sort of place you usually run into a group of people in kilts.

Earlier in the morning Micah and I saw a single man in a kilt walking into the side door of the church. We figured it was an anomaly, and I was quite sad that my cameras were both inside with dead batteries. (I am my mother’s daughter)
But later in the afternoon we discovered that kilt man was not an anomaly. One is an anomaly, two is a coincidence but more that is definitely a Trend. A Kilt Trend. in Grove City. who knew!

And I think that 8 kilts (in formation no less) defies definition! Although I guess one was a girl so it was merely a plaid skirt...but STILL! I'm just sayin'

I ♥ Faces - Reflections

So this week is supposed to be reflection portraits. I'm cheating since we just left the country and pulling one from way back. I think I got 2 in 1 they said it should not be some one looking reflective or thoughtful but rather an actual physical reflection and I got BOTH! This is Lenka, we went on a trip together in 2006 to Zilina and Bratislava with a few other folks, it was a great trip and this is one of my favorite "people" pictures. Additionally, this is the SOOC shot! i love it when you can get it just right without manipulation. I think it's a discipline that is getting left behind in the age of digital photography.



I have a bunch of reflective thoughts too. Since we just got to Slovakia (i'm reunited with my sweaters and will never travel without them again...for those of you following THAT saga) It feels a little like New Years we are looking at how we lived here before and how we lived in the time we were home and we get a fresh start of sorts. We are making a whole new list of things we'd like to start or stop. So we are not doing much thoughtlessly and a couple times a day Micah or i say, "you know, I was thinking...what if..." It is a fun time. (it is also a little like living with the Goob when he was 3..."I was thinking") we RAN this morning. who knows what will be next

And literally, i'd like to be reflective, like when the sun hits a pond or a mirror and everything is bright. I'd want to reflect. I'd like to mirror God's Grace to people. Ashley posted of Facebook the other day about "Incarnational caring" and I think that might be just this, to be a mirror set on an angle so that when people look at us they see the reflection of heaven. Nothing special about the one doing the reflecting just being set at the right angle. i dont have to WORK WORK WORK to be like Jesus. I just need to be clued in to where He is and where I should be pointing.

Airport Woes

We had a flight canceled. blah. We are at Micah's brother's. Angie deserves a medal for all the airport runs she has planned and executed in the past year.

same flight plan tomorrow but with an earlier start and a shuttle between Laguardia and JFK.

FUN FUN

From the airpot

Leaving on a jet plane. Don't know when i'll be back again.

here's the deal i'm posting from the airport. we leave her at 12:55 fly to JFK, spend 3 hours there, leave at 5:50 to Vienna. Spend 5? hours or so in vienna and then fly to Kosice. we arrive at 730 EST, 2:30 local time.

woot woot.


also, i had an emergency tooth extraction on Friday.

Easter Memories

I remember the first Oscar egg... Abi started it. She spelled her name Abby then. :)
We had a Sesame Street Egg dye kit that year, with stickers to put on finished eggs. You just couldn't put a sticker of Oscar the grouch on a pretty pink egg.
It has always been Abi's thing, But becasue of that it is a Havener thing. It would not feel right if I knew that all the eggs at my mothers house were pretty solid colors on a bed of perfect green plastic grass.

This year Alex did the one for Mom's house, and Abi did one for the Iovinos. There are two Oscar eggs in the world this weekend. And life is good.





on another note, I am taking pasta salad to a picnic this afternoon. I do not like pasta salad and am concerned that:
a) no one else likes pasta salad and we will have to bring it home with us.
b) everyone will love my pasta salad and it will become my "thing" and I will have to be family famous for something I don't even eat. Like Grandma Henry and her cookies.

Also, keep your eyes open next week for photos and videos of the log cannon.

Some help please?

I can not remember what meteorological event will cause me to eat my easter eggs behind the stove.