Oh what a Week

Things have been busy! But I had a good two days in San Diego. Had more students in both orientations that I expected but that's okay. I had one machine that I couldn't get working but hopefully in the long run it won't be a problem.

Tomorrow will be another fun day. Have faculty/staff kick off first thing in the morning then I'm helping the techs receive the faculty laptops for refresh. Then around 11am I'm off to the airport to fly to Sacramento for APU's first NCAA football game. Should be fun or at least hopefully it will be fun. I'm staying in Sacramento with one of my favorite families then driving back to Azusa with them on Friday.

I've already had some pictures show up on the APU Website... you can check the photo credits page if you want.  Hopefully going to have a good year and lots of fun pictures!

One Week Down ALREADY!?!?

This week has been pretty uneventful. I went back to work on Tuesday which was nice though I really didn’t have a lot of motivation to work.  But I did get some things accomplished  had I nice time at the Spiritual Emphasis Day at APU.

My goals for January are pretty simple.

1. Stick with the Bible 360 website.  It’s been fun I’ve had 3 or 4 people who have been activity commenting and it’s getting several hits. I’ve got post through the 14th ready to go.
2. Read at least 4 books – I’ve already read 2 this weeks.
3. Get my budget established – I’ve been working on this but trying to remember all the stupid stuff I spend money.
4. Get my checkbook updated on my phone so I can track my finances.  
5. Reduce the amount of soda I drink.

I only made it to the gym 3 times this week.  But tomorrow is the start of a new week and another chance to get it right.

No great Mark stories this week. The only story is the stunt he pulled on Friday. I asked on Thursday night if his homework was done, to which he responds “yes.” Friday morning at 7:32, we try to leave at 7:30 but I digress… at 7:32 he comes to me and says “Can you type something for me since you type faster?” It was a page and half document for history that was due on that day!  I could have killed him! But since it affected 2 others I typed it. UGH

I did do something fun Tuesday, I went to the APU Women’s Basketball game and took pictures. I had a blast and we won! Here’s one of my favorite from the night. 

To see the other pictures that were posted on the APU Web site click here

Goodbye October Hello November

OK, I really can’t believe it’s been almost a month since my last blog.  I just don’t seem to have the energy to do much of anything.  But I’ve stayed busy.  Football had 2 away games in October, which meant a trip to LegoLand for Brick or Treat.  It was Mark’s last year to do the Brick or Treat trail and even at that the lady at the beginning asked, “Do you want a stamp?” When Mark said yes, she stamped his hand and said “I just made you 12”  To which I replied, he is 12, he doesn’t turn 13 until January.  Her eyes got big and said ‘He’s gonna be a big guy!” 

The day went well, Mark enjoyed the new Mind Storms robots and Dr. Heartbeat.  Especially now the computer and robots communicate via Bluetooth.  It was the journey home that got dicey.  We had just transitioned from the 5 to the 57 in the carpool lane when the engine light came on and the car started power.  I had to cross 5 lanes of traffic to get off the freeway.  The car completely stopped on the shoulder of the off ramp, of course, I had no idea what ramp I was on.  Thankfully, Erwin was able to figure it out and AAA found me and towed the car to the mechanic. 

It was the timing belt and I was without a car until Wednesday and we won’t talk about how much that cost us. 

I’ve been doing a lot of photography.  I’ve been doing football, women’s soccer, and volleyball.  Of course there’s my favorite 15 month old, Miss Lily Taylor.  Had a lot of fun with her on Saturday as well as getting some nice pictures.  This Saturday I’m doing family portraits for a friend of work.  I’m looking forward to it, though, I’m a little nervous.  I want them to come out nice. 

Here are some of the pictures that have been used for the APU sports site:

From this past Saturday night’s homecoming game: http://www.apu.edu/athletics/football/stories/17939/

September 17th football: http://www.apu.edu/athletics/football/stories/17760/

Pre-season scrimmage (99.9% sure it’s mine but no credit line I have the original on my computer ) http://www.apu.edu/athletics/football/stories/17688/

Women’s Soccer:

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/soccer/womens/stories/17895/

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/soccer/womens/stories/17890/

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/soccer/womens/stories/17858/

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/soccer/womens/stories/17824/

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/soccer/womens/stories/17721/

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/soccer/womens/stories/17712/

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/soccer/womens/stories/17694/  The sweet shot!

Women’s Volleyball:

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/volleyball/stories/17891/ the nicest shot!

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/volleyball/stories/17784/

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/volleyball/stories/17747/ (my first time trying to shoot volleyball)

October? Really??? What happened?

I remember my Dad telling me to enjoy being a kid because the older you get the faster time seems to go.  I was probably complaining about waiting for Christmas or my birthday or summer or school to start! (Remember I grew up on an 80 acre farm, summers got to be really long before I would see my friends again.

Now as a 40 something adult I understand what he meant.  It’s hard to believe that it’s October and 2011 is almost over. It’s hard to believe my vacation of a lifetime was almost 3 months ago.  It’s hard to believe Tim is in his 4th year of college and Mark’s in middle school. 

I have to ask myself, am I really living my life to the fullest?  Am I taking advantage of the opportunities I’ve been given? Sometimes I feel like the answer is a great big NO!  But this year I have tried to invest more in people.  And I’ve got some amazing friends.  People that love me and that I love.  I’m also having a blast doing photography, though football has been VERY frustrating.  I have my new cool lens, but I’m still not getting great pics.  So I keep trying and hoping to get it right sometime SOON!

The nice thing is girls’ soccer is during the daytime and the D70 does great with enough light… you can check out yesterday’s pics here:

http://www.apu.edu/athletics/soccer/womens/stories/17824/

A Great Day!

Today was moving day and the movers didn’t want us under foot so I had the day off.  So I decide to have some fun.  After dropping off Mark I had breakfast, filled up the car (a whopping $45) picked up a couple of birthday cards. Then it was off to Monrovia to hike up to Monrovia Falls.  I had read about it in one of my favorite blogs, by Dan Simpson.  He has an entire hiking website with lots of information about hiking trails in the LA area. 

The hike was very nice.  Not too steep but a good walk. It didn’t kill me the way Garcia Trail does.  I took my camera (of course that’s the fun of hiking) using the Tamaron 300mm lens, it’s not as heavy as my 200mm and I figured that I would be able to get some decent shots with it.  The falls aren’t super exciting this time of the year, but it was still nice. 

 

Here it is!  The Monrovia Falls!

SQUIRREL!

The highlight of the trip… Down by the parking lot was a black bear (though he is a nice brown color, the ranger told us he’s a black bear.)  He just lumbered by and didn’t really pay much attention to us.

Had lunch with Tim, he wanted to see if the Barbq Beef Brisket was as good as I said, and it was!

I did some more fun stuff including buying some more camera equipment and then did a girly girl thing and had my nails done. 

Tomorrow I spend my first day in my new office.  I’ll try to post some pictures of that as well.  It’s really, really nice.

A Week Without School

It’s a little weird not to have school.  Of course, I’m thinking about doing another master’s degree, though it will be awhile and I’ll need to do some pre-reqs but that’s OK.  It will be awhile before I start up again. Right now I want to focus on my music and photography. If all goes well I’ll be able to take classes at Tri-community this summer. I’ve heard really good things about their program. The neat thing is once you’re enrolled you can go to any of the classes. I’m looking forward to learning more about my camera and how to get the most out of it. They also have a class about taking pictures of landscapes and the like, which will be great this summer.

I did get my new lens yesterday and had some fun at the Ladies’ Tea taking pictures. I’ve also been playing with settings and trying new things.  Here are some pics of the the roses at my house.  Nothing overly exciting but they are pretty roses.

A Day in North San Diego County1

Today Mark and I went to LegoLand California to check out the new Star Wars section of Miniland.  They did a really great job, representing all of the movies.  It was rainy today and crowded two of my least favorite things with an amusement park.  Mark is so spoiled he doesn't ever want to stand in a very long line.  So we did the boats and I beat him. And we did Dino Coaster, which is always fun albeit short ride. Here are some shots of the new Legoland Star Wars area and a special sand castle honoring Star Wars.  And no, I don't know why the sand castles didn't melt in the rain.  (It was not ever a heavy rain.)

We ended up leaving Legoland around 2:00 and drove to the beach.  It was quiet but beautiful watching the waves crash into the shore.  As well as some birds fishing in the ocean.  Hopefully you can tell what they are doing from the pictures.



I wasn't really ready to go home, or rather hit rush our traffic in Orange County so we took 78 and headed over to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park (formerly known as the Wild Animal Park). We got there about 3:45 which meant FREE parking.  Even as pass holders the Safari park charges for parking.  (A reduced rate)  Also, we were able to get a choice parking spot close to the entrace. The park closed at 5 which meant not much time, but it worked out nicely. We strolled down to the African Safari tram and ended up being on the last one of the day.  I got some really nice pictures.  Interestingly, enough almost all of these pictures I shot manually.  Legoland and the beach I put the camera on auto.  At Legoland it was mainly because of the rain and not wanting to constantly play.  But here at the Safari Park I was lucky enough to find a good auto setting for the tram ride.  As well I was able to switch over to manual focus to get a couple of the pictures of the birds behind wire enclosures. Overall, pretty happy with the pics.



It was a really fun day. And I'm glad we went to the Safari Park since our passes expire at the end of April. I probably won't renew them for awhile, since this summer we're heading north.

Creative Photography

A few weeks ago a friend of mine (and  fellow photographer) sent me an email with some very creative photographs.  Be warned some of them are just a tad CREEPY. Others are very cool.

Enjoy!

[gallery]

San Dimas Western Days

Today was the Western Days Parade in San Dimas. I never had been to the San Dimas Parade until Tim's Freshman year of High School. I found out I LOVE parades. At least I enjoy marching in them. Today I remembered how much fun it was to march with the band. (It's way more fun than watching a parade)

Our church gives out water for free to parade goers as a way of reaching out. Something simple but hopefully it reminds people that we're there on the corner and that we are really nice people.

This year I took pictures of the parade it was fun. You can check out the 500 or so pictures here:  (I'll try to delete the "bad" ones tomorrow so there won't be as many)



I really miss marching with the band.  It was always great fun.  Next week is the Azusa parade and Tim will be marching in that with the APU marching band.  I plan to be there and taking lots of pictures I'm sure.  This year San Dimas' march was Sousa's Washington Post March.  So here is a little flavor of we heard today:

End of the weekend

Seems like I've only had time to blog on Sunday nights.  Things are busy between work, family, school, church, etc. This weekend was enjoyable. Saturday morning we had a seminar at the church that was well done and worth the time I spent there.  Saturday was another home football game at Azusa Pacific University.  This week they were playing the Whittier College Poets. (Yes, seriously, the Poets) But they were a tough team with young men I wouldn't dare make fun of, of course, one of my photo partners wanted to make fun of them and through me "under the bus."  Thankfully, he didn't and we both live to take pictures again next week at Chapman. And I appreciate that Brian!

Of course the most excitement came Sunday at lunch when I checked the APU website and saw this


And this week I got an ACTION shot in there.  Last week I got photo credit, but I think it was my picture of the crowd.  Which I'm grateful for, but this one makes me smile.


Thankfully the San Gabriel Tribune guy got out of the way, he was in my earlier shots.  (I got him coming all the way up the sideline)

Next Saturday at Chapman I'm hopefully using Ken's big bad boy camera and lens!!!  If I can't use it then I'll probably end up being Brian's lackey... and that just can't happen!!

Tonight I opted to drop my Christian Ethics and added a class Gospel's Witness to Christ. I hate the fact I'm 2 weeks behind, but I can't see staying in a class that will stress me out. I am just not one to argue especially about theology.  So, we'll see what happens, I just need to pass the class, it's an elective.  I have to keep reminding myself of that.  My 4.0 is gone I just need to pass the class and be done in the spring (229 days from now!)