Some photography

I have always been interested in photography and taking pictures, and I've gotten a little more interested in the last two years or so.

My current obsession started a few months ago when I discovered The Pioneer Woman's blog. I really can't remember how I happened upon it, but I did. I think I found it around the end of February/beginning of March, and I've spent the time since then reading just about every entry. I really like her photography skills and her Photoshop tutorials.


On her site, I discovered "actions." I work with Photoshop every day at work and am lucky enough to have access to CS2, but I had never heard of actions. Probably because I'm usually not working with photographs, but renderings. Anyway, she has two set of actions you can download for free. Plus, I went online and downloaded some other ones for free as well. As soon as I discovered these actions, my world opened up like never before! I started going through my photos looking for pics good enough to apply these actions too.


And in the process of learning about actions, I also learned about the really cool affect of the black and white photo with color.





So, the following photos are some pics I have taken the last couple of years that I really like and wanted to play with. I am no expert, but I am enjoying learning about this, and playing with a different aspect of Photoshop! The first pictures in the sets are the before's and the rest are the after's.

This was from Sigma Alpha National Convention in St. Louis

Ft. Davis, Texas

Vancouver, British Columbia

Cactus flower - Schulenburg, Texas

Bluebonnet - Schulenburg, Texas

Phlox - Schulenburg, Texas

Bluebonnets - Schulenburg, Texas

Claret Cup Cactus - Big Bend National Park, Texas

Vancouver, British Columbia

My childhood was a lie!

Not really my whole childhood, just one very big part of it.

My mom's mom, Grandma Elsie, always made chocolate chip cookies. When we would come home from school, there would usually be a butter container (or two) full of cookies by the garage door. They were always so good!!!! Any time we were at her house, she always had some around. Well, around 5 or 6 years ago, she started to go downhill, and of course didn't make cookies anymore, and 2 years ago she passed away.

I've thought about those cookies a few times in the last few years, and always made a mental note to ask my mom if she had found the recipe. I, of course, always forgot to ask. Until this weekend.

When I got home on Friday, I needed to run to the store to pick up a few last minute items for some things I was making. My sister said she wanted to go to because she needed to get ingredients for Ryan's birthday present...he had said he wanted someone to make him Grandma Elsie's Chocolate Chip Cookies. When I heard that I said, " Ohh, you have the recipe? I was wondering what it was. Can a get a copy?" And then my dad says, "Sure you can! It's on the back of the chocolate chip bag." To which my response is, "Huh? Are you sure?" Oh yeah, he was dead serious. She had copied the recipe from the bag. Like literally, made a copy of the recipe on the bag. Talk about your all time disappointments! I really could not believe it. I had to see for myself exactly how it looked. And it looked just like the recipe on the bag. We always thought she had some kind of secret recipe or something. Who would have thought that it was staring at us everytime we looked at a bag of chocolate chips?

Rach made a batch this weekend and they turned out pretty good. She got mad at me because I kept stealing tastes of the batter! They didn't really taste exactly like Grandma's, but they were still good and reminded us of those butter containers!

On top of the world

...or at least pretty close!

The first weekend in March, my parents, Josh and I headed to Big Bend National Park. We left Friday afternoon and made a stop in Ft. Stockton. We had mexican food (because that's all there is) for dinner and headed to Josh's parents house to go to bed.

We got up bright and early Saturday morning, ate breakfast, and headed out because we still had a two hour or so drive to get to the park. It felt so good to be in the cool, crisp, non humid air!! We knew it was going to be the perfect day for a hike. We got to the park, parked at The Lodge where we were staying that night and got everything ready to start our hike. We had decided on the way down that we would do the 9 mile hike to Emory Peak, the highest peak in the park and the second highest peak in Texas. It didn't sound too rough, and had the best view in the park. So, we head out about 10:30 thinking it would only take us about 4-5 hours to do the whole thing, especially after we had talked to a few people about it. Ha. Ha. Ha. The joke was one us. And the map we got was crappy!

We started out well enough. We were all breathing pretty hard, but once we got into a rhythm, it wasn't too bad. Until we hit the switchbacks. All 500 million of them!

This is "The Window." This was near the beginning of the hike. We could have hiked to it and been done in about 2 hours, but we thought that was for wusses. Yeah, we should have done that one because that is what we were!!

Then we came across these Claret Cup Cactus in a flat open field. How bad can it be when you have scenery like this to look at?!

(This is my absolute favorite picture from the whole trip! )

Just look at that! All that color in the middle of dull brown grass! This was the one and only one that we saw!

For some reason this is the peak we thought we were hiking to- we were very very wrong! That sucker would have been a piece a cake and much much closer that where we were going!

From looking at the map (my dad and I love maps and have a pretty good handle on reading them) it looked like we were at a particular point that wasn't too far from where we were heading. We were looking for a hard right to take while the trail we were on continued. Well, we told my mom this and every hard right we took, she asked if this was the one! Ha! We all wished it had been!

So, as we are climbing up half of the 500 million switchbacks, we pass a park ranger hanging out, making sure people are staying on the trail. We stopped a couple of times to get water or a snack and he always ended up catching up to us and stopping to chat. At one point, when were absolutely certain that we were near the 'hard right,' we stopped to take a break and our new friend stopped too. We told him where we were heading, and he told us that we still had another hour (!!) to make it to the hard right, and then we still had another mile to go from there. I should note that I am a wuss and my hips were hurting very badly at this point. Long story short, I think they are out of alignment (or something like that) and cause me a lot of pain sometimes. I really didn't know how I was going to make it. But I had said I wanted to do this, so I was going to finish it!

I should stop here to mention that we were covering about 3,000 feet of elevation change on this hike. The last mile alone covered 1,000 feet of elevation change. The last 50' feet or so was a sheer cliff!

Finally we made it the 'hard right!' You have no idea how happy we were to see it!! We stopped for lunch at the green bear box above. There are bears and mountain lions in the park, and every so often on the trail, there is a sign reminding you of this little fact!

And finally we made it to the top! This is the view from the top of Emory Peak. That last mile was hell!! At least for me and my hips. We passed a few people on their way down. The first guy told us it would be another 20 minutes. The next guy we saw said it would be another 45! It took all we had to make it, and in the end, it was so worth it!!


Another view. It was very dusty that day, so we couldn't see too much of the horizon.

The very top of the peak

If you click on this photo to enlarge it, you can see some orange roofs in the valley- that's The Lodge where we stayed Saturday night.

I think this view might be looking toward Mexico

At the top. I wore that orange visor in case something happened- they would be able to find me. I am not joking.

This is Emory Peak after we got down the trail a little way. It doesn't look too menacing from here!

When we got back to The Lodge, the hike had taken us 7 hours total. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get down. And we were so happy to see the truck in the parking lot! It was sad how sore we were that evening. I could barely walk! I looked like a little old lady!

Sunday morning we got up before the sun was up and drove down to the Rio Grande where there is a natural hot spring that is 105 degrees!! Oh my gosh, it felt amazing! Especially on our sore joints and muscles from the hike. The smooth, glassy water is the hot spring with the river in the background.

That is Mexico (duh)

Another view of Mexico

Sitting in the hot spring

I went a little further down the river to get a shot of the springs which are on the right.

After the springs (which we didn't want to leave), we headed back to The Lodge to pack up and head out. We exited the park on the Terlingua side and drove up to Alpine to get lunch before heading to Marfa. We stopped just outside of Marfa and the Luz de Estrella winery. We did a little wine tasting there and also met some people who live in Schulenburg, but who my parents didn't know. It's a small world! We went into Marfa and stopped at the Marfa bookstore for my dad so he could look around. Then we headed out to Ft. Davis and Indian Lodge. We checked in at the lodge, and headed up the hill for some beverage consumption and snacking.

This is Indian Lodge at Ft. Davis

I took way too many pictures of these blooming yuccas

Monday morning we got up and hiked to the top of this thing. It was nowhere near as bad as the hike to Emory Peak.

Indian Lodge from the previous peak

Davis Mountains

Another shot.

We got back down to the lodge, loaded up, and headed back to Ft. Stockton to eat lunch, and head back to the city. It was a busy, tiring weekend, but so much fun! I think it took me the whole rest of the week for my body to recover!

Our next trip: Guadalupe Peak- the highest in Texas. Should be interesting!

Still here

I am still alive. A lot has happened in the last 3 weeks or so, and I'm still trying to process some of it. We took a little mini vacation this past weekend, so hopefully, I can get some pics up by the end of this week.

Pictures

Wow, I didn't realize it's been two weeks since I posted something! But, in my defense, there really hasn't been much happening.

I just wanted to post the link to the wedding pics if anyone is interested.
http://www.memorable-media.smugmug.com/gallery/6905872_iZ3Us#442125876_kjXJZ

Decisions

Still nothing much happening. But I do have to say that I could use some prayers. Some things have been going on lately, and I am having a stuggle deciding what to do. I could make a quick decision that sounds like it would be the right thing to do, but I don't know if it really is the best thing to do.

**No, Josh and I aren't having problems...just to make sure that is clear!

Dave says 'Sell'

Not much to report over here. I'm at work actually working on a billable project! Yeah! All last week was spent on non-billable work, so I am happy. But not too happy because it is close to 70 outside, the sun is shining, and I am stuck at my desk in front of computer, with my heater blowing at my feet, because for some reason the people in this office feel the need to blast the AC at all times. And I don't have a window to gaze out of. I more or less look longing over the railing to see the shadows the sun casts onto the parking lot pavement. I wish I was outside doing something.

And the economy has officially messed with my life! We went to see Dave Ramsey live this weekend. He was really really good. Josh has read the book and has told me all about it, so I understand his philosophy, but it was still good to hear in person. Now, we just have to put it into action. However, the economy has pretty much screwed us from doing anything except saving money. It's so bad, that I am heading out this weekend to see if I can find a part-time job! And Josh mentioned the 'S' word in regards to my truck...that word being 'Sell.' I will have to get to the point where I eat Ramen noodles (and I don't like Ramen) before I let my truck go! I have been through too much to get and keep it! I have a feeling this will be a huge point of contention for us.

Anyways, just say a prayer that all of this gets better and I don't lose my job!!