Garibaldi

So...after the roads finally opened back up, Makena and I made it to Garibaldi. It was just for Saturday and Sunday, but it was a good visit! My mom hasn't had a tree in a few years so we had to make it down there! I'm always calling her a 'humbug'.

smellies for momma

gold mining accessories for Papa

It started snowing again on the way home. I stopped to get some pictures of a waterfall. I did get a couple of good pictures, but ended up falling through a snow pile and hurting my broken toe. As I was hobbling back to the truck, Makena said that she was going to tell Jamie on me. (And she did! Jamie threatened to take away my camera.) I also had Makena take some pictures from the truck. I had to turn around a couple of times tho because we missed some good shots. We were laughing...it was fun! She took some really good pictures while I was driving - she said her face was freezing off tho so I let her roll up the window. : )

she's sticking her tongue out at me

yep...that's the waterfall

Some pictures

Here are a few pictures that I took at my momma's house last weekend. I was just playing around with some features, trying not to have to use my flash in the house. Hopefully by then end of my camera class, I'll actually know what to do instead of just hitting a bunch of buttons!

Momma's pretty tree

Santa under the tree

do you see the tree light reflecting on Santa? Do ya??

Can you see me in the ball? (Makena was laughing at me)

Focusing on the light bulb behind the pine cone ornament

Now focusing on the same pine cone ornament.

I wonder if I can get closer to her! : )

Fire!! (I was impressed with myself)

Isn't it cute?!? (Momma was laughing at me now)

Even though Makena was laughing at me while I was taking them...an my mom was laughing while looking at them (there were A LOT of pictures of the same thing)...I did actually plan the photos this way. (That's what good photographers do I guess!) : )

Camera Class

WOW...a lot of information in just 3 hours of my first camera class. The first thing the instructor said was the that first three classes were going to be the most confusing but to stick with it. I'm gonna!! I think once I start taking pictures (the same shot) changing the functions between each shot, I'll know more about what each function does. Until then...WOW... We do have one field trip at night - we go downtown to Pioneer Square. (ALWAYS a fun place for photos, day or night.) And we'll also be traveling to Sellwood very early on a Saturday morning. (He's suggesting Jan 31 but that's the day we have our Relay Casino Trip so I'm not sure how that's gonna work.)

Oh Kathy - now I know what the heck Karen Russell is talking about when she says f8 or f1.4!! But that's about all I know... : )

Makena's pictures

I'm so proud! After I was done 'playing' with my new camera at my mom's, Makena wanted to try it out. I didn't really see what she was doing until I went in to edit my uploaded photos yesterday. She had even already edited her pictures on the camera! She starts a photography class in Art next week, so I think we'll have some fun with that. (She thinks she's gonna borrow my new camera.)

the "original" shot

"fish-eye" editing

"Sepia" editing - with a little sparkle

Her own person

Makena is really enjoying shopping for clothes now. And she definitely is her own person! We had to run to Hot Topic yesterday to get the final goodies for this outfit...

A tu-tu of course! She's been looking at them for a while so we went shopping. She started wearing leg warmers and arm warmers a few months ago - I don't recall ever liking leg warmers but I'm not the one wearing them. : ) Plus, she enjoys expressing herself with her clothes - an not in a trashy way - gotta appreciate that as a mother! Looking cute Pook!

Blogger...arggg

So...I've edited a ton of pictures (cuz I took a ton of pictures) and was ready to load some of them on here to share. Well...Blogger decided it's not going to let me load pictures right now. I know, I know...we all have to be patient.

I have my first camera class tonight and I CAN'T WAIT!! It's a 10 week class - 3hrs every Wednesday night. And, it's just off of 185th on Walker Road - so I don't have to drive too far. I've gotten a few extra accessories for my camera - an extra battery, a larger memory card and some leashes for my lens caps. (Those lens caps can loose themselves very quickly!) I think I'm ready to learn!

Relay is moving!

Apparently a football invitational is coming to the Hillsboro Stadium the same weekend that the Relay For Life of Hillsboro 2009 was scheduled, so we had to move or change the date. The Committee decided to change the event site and I think it will be a great opportunity for us. We are moving to the Washington County Fairgrounds! This is a much larger site that will allow us to continue growing. There are more changes for us there as well (like tent stakes!) and we were planning to move there next year anyways. It's going to be a 'change' for the Committee as well to get everything organized, but I think it's going to be a good thing!

Our Kick-off Event is this Saturday (Jan. 10) at Witch Hazel Elementary from 2:00 to 4:00pm. Hope to see you there!!

Relay For Life of Hillsboro www.relayforlife.org/hillsboroor

Etsy accessories

My new camera strap has finally arrived and I love it! I have so much fun shopping on Etsy.com!

This is an iPod cozy that I had made for Makena for Christmas.

We were supposed to leave for Garibaldi this morning, but all of the roads in are flooded and closed. I'm hoping to be able to get there tomorrow so that Makena & I can spend time with family. Jamie decided to fly to Arizona at the last minute to go to the football game tomorrow with 'the other Jaime'. They will both be back on Sunday.

'Why I smiled today' - when Jamie looked outside about 12:30am this morning he saw the big beautiful snowflakes. I was happy to see snow on the ground again this morning.

New Year's Eve

Kylah came over to visit us for a while on New Year's Eve. She was very excited to play with us!

Kylah hid plastic eggs for Uncle Jamie to find

Then we all went over to Lindsey & Brandon's house - it was great to see people that I hadn't seen in such a long time! I'm glad I got to hobble on over - thanks for the invite guys!

see my cookie Auntie?

No Uncle Jamie, you can't have my cookie!

hope to see you again soon! (Lindsey was hiding from me)

You can't really see it, but Lindsey's bow said Happy New Year and blinked

Because I couldn't walk around much (the toe is getting better tho) I couldn't really get many pictures. I'll have to wait for Dylona to share...

Resolutions?

I remember that we spent one New Year's Eve at my grandfather's house and I wrote down a list of Resolutions. If I remember correctly, I was in middle school...I wish I had that list now! I don't think I've done a list since then, probably because I never to stick to them. (Sound familiar?) I was reading an article yesterday that asked "What resolution would you not make this year because you know you'll probably break it?" Hey...now that's a list I may be able to do! Another article that I read reminded me to continue to do the things in my life that I already enjoy doing but maybe do them more often. Those are going to be the things I look forward to doing in 2009!

Some other reminders:

• Shop with compassion (leapingbunny.com) - purchase cruelty-free products
• Volunteer - feel good about yourself while doing good things for others
• Do Unto Others - "do unto others as we would have them do unto us" (yes, this can be challenging sometimes, but in honoring others we honor ourselves)
• Avoid mental toxins - just as you wouldn't mindlessly slather toxins onto your skin or welcome chemicals in your food, be careful about what your brain absorbs
• Exercise - exercise to be healthy, not to change yourself

Whatever your Resolutions are, I wish you the best of luck with them!

Happy 2009!

Wishing everyone wonderful things in 2009!

Jamie, Amber & Makena

December 31, 2008

Well here it is, and it's hard to believe that is the last day of 2008! It seems like so many days go by faster than I'd like; I try to enjoy as much as I can. Of course, there are the days that just don't go by fast enough too, but I try to enjoy part of those as well. : ) I wish you all a safe & happy 2009!!

I found another article that I thought I'd share...by Chris Freytag (health guru)

So many of us go, go, go over the holidays trying to make everyone happy and everything perfect and by the end of it we are tired, wiped out and just plain exhausted. Don’t get me wrong, it is a wonderful thing to help create a memorable holiday for your family and friends, but it leaves most of us entering the new year a bit frazzled!

Therefore, with a new year just around the corner I am giving you an assignment: What gift can you give yourself that doesn’t require lots of cash? What can you do for yourself in the near future that your body and mind will thank you for? It could be that you are going to allow yourself some extra hours of sleep. (Studies have shown when you are overtired, you tend to overeat to increase your energy.) You are better off getting into bed early and getting up early to take that walk in the morning. It could be that you are going to make that doctors appointment pronto that you have been putting off to have your blood pressure and blood sugar checked. Maybe you are going to sign up for the local park district yoga class finally this year or commit to getting your 5 fruits and veggies a day. Do you get the idea?

Start your year off right by giving yourself some gifts….gifts that don’t require money but require a little thought and organization…Your health is the most important thing in your life, without it everything else will fall by the wayside. I already have started my list of gifts to me!

So...along with my New Year's Resolution list, I'd better get started on the list of gifts for myself! And, you'd better too!

Another thing 'Starting January 1, 2009'

Beginning Jan. 1, Oregon’s Bottle Bill will expand to include water and flavored water containers. That means that, in addition to those plastic water and flavored water containers, beer and malt beverages, soda, mineral water, and carbonated soft drinks will all be redeemable for a 5 cent deposit. Be sure to look for the “OR 5¢ deposit” on the label.

The original Bottle Bill was passed in 1971 - Oregon’s bottle bill was the first of its kind in the nation. The Bottle Bill set the stage for easy environmental solutions we now take for granted, like curbside recycling. Thirty seven years later, the bottle bill is still doing its job. Now, hopefully it will begin to keep plastic water bottles out of the landfill, and put them into the recyclate stream.

• Since 1971, the amount of beverage containers in litter along Oregon roadsides has dropped from 40 percent to 6 percent.
• Recycled beverage containers are used to make hundreds of products including fleece jackets, carpeting, baseball bats, license plates, and insulation as well as new beverage containers.
• Recycling a ton of plastic bottles saves approximately 3.8 barrels of oil.
• Recycling one pound of PET (polyethylene terphthalate) plastic bottles saves approximately 12,000 BTUs of energy.
• Using recycled materials uses 2/3 less energy than using raw materials.

Keep recycling!

Happy Tuesday

Sadly, all of the snow is gone now. This is the last little patch that we have on our deck. You can barely even see it...

Dylona stopped by so that the girls could visit their 'injured Auntie' for a little bit. Kylah posed for me so that I could take some pictures of her with my new camera. (She said that she couldn't believe it that I hurt my foot again.) : )

Kallie had her new Elmo

Kallie played with Makena's old cell phone

I love them!

Christmas Brunch

Due to last week's weather, we had to postpone Grandma Neena's Christmas brunch until this Sunday. Some of the family couldn't make it as they weren't feeling well - we hope you are all feeling better soon! There was a lot of good food - thanks again for everything Grandma!

New left foot

I was talking some pictures of things around the house last night - playing with my camera.

So when I bent down to pick up the little jar of candy canes, my camera swung and knocked me off balance. I put my left foot out to brace myself and ended up kicking the wall. I heard a 'pop' and the pain ran through my foot actually taking my breath away. I sat on the floor for a while - Jamie kept asking me if I had hurt my ankle or foot and all I could really say was "no". A few minutes later I decided to get up, I heard another 'pop' and fell as I couldn't put any weight on my foot. It seems that I had broken a toe or two...and it hurt like hell! I iced my toes off/on for a while and Jamie taped a couple of them together before going to bed. Wouldn't you know it's the same foot that I hurt this summer?!?

I woke up this morning with quite a bit of pain still. I can't put any weight on my foot, but it does only seem to be the second of my smallest toes that is hurt. There is some slight swelling and bruising...and still a lot of pain. My New Year's Resolution is to not be so clumsy and hurt my foot at all in 2009!

The doctor says to keep it taped up and elevated...and to try to stay off of it as much as possible. It actually hurts more than this summer so maybe I can lay around a bit.

Starting January 1, 2009

Last year, Americans shoved aside an estimated 27 million outdated or unwanted televisions, and 205 million computers and chunks of related hardware. We crammed most of this e-waste inside a million basements, or stuffed it in the trash.

Problem is, TVs, computers and the like (especially older models) contain lead, mercury, fire retardants and other substances that, when leaked from landfills or incinerated, are bad news for our air, water and bodies. Plus, it's a waste to throw old electronics out, or store them for years in the garage. The copper, gold and aluminum inside can be recycled for use in new products. It requires less energy to salvage those materials than to produce new devices from scratch.

Reuse: DEQ officials suggest using an old but still working computer to store a digital music collection or other files, freeing up memory on a new machine. Or give usable electronics to an individual or group who needs it -- a student, neighbor, church, school, charity or reuse center. Metro regional government lists charitable organizations, many of which accept used electronics. Or use sites such as Freecycle Portland (groups.yahoo.com/group/freecycleportland).

Recycle: For Oregon and Washington residents -- and their old TVs, computers and monitors only -- recycling is about to get a lot easier, courtesy of the new E-Cycles program.
Starting Jan. 1, you can drop off TVs, computers (desktops and laptops) and monitors at a network of free recycling sites. The network is the result of legislation in both states that requires manufacturers to pay to recycle their products, if they want to keep selling them here.

• In Oregon: Starting Jan. 1, search the Oregon E-Cycles database by zip code, city or town to find the nearest collection site, at oregonecycles.org. Or call the Oregon E-Cycles hotline at 1-888-532-9253. Note: The Web site and hotline will be active as of Jan. 1.
• In Washington: Starting Jan. 1, search for collection sites at ecyclewashington.org. Or call 1-800-RECYCLE

All the rest of the e-waste heap: The only items you can recycle for free through E-Cycles in Oregon and Washington are TVs, computers and monitors. Important: No other computer-related items (keyboards, mice, speakers, printers, scanners) or electronic devices will be accepted for free. Contact your local collection site for more information.

Mt Hood Meadows

We made it up to the Mt Hood yesterday, but for night skiing so I didn't get out to snowshoe or to take many pictures. Some friends (Michelle & Glen from Costa Rica) came along with us - they went skiing while Jamie & Jaime went snowboarding. I hung out in the lodge; reading and people watching. I'm hoping to talk Jamie into taking us back up to do some snowshoeing on Monday or Tuesday.

Mt Hood Meadows Lodge

the snow froze while falling and the icicles were hanging on

Michelle is ready!

time for a dinner break

and warm drinks afterwards