Favorite Photo Friday ~ Abigail and Grandma

One of the best things about loosing power for 9 days was a huge computer discovery I made.  One night I was at my brother and sister in laws house and decided to go on their computer.  (It had been a long week and I was happy to be able to see what was going on in the world)  I clicked on my blog and saw the strangest color in my pictures.  And I panicked.  I called Scott in to take a look.  "That's how people have been seeing my pictures?!"  They were terrible, all blueish grey.  I guess I don't need to explain since you've been seeing them that way. 

After our power came back on that was one of the first things I tackled.  With Scott's help we stayed up late trying to figure out why the color were so distorted.  Long story short, we found out that somehow when my pictures were edited in Lightroom and Photoshop they were saved with a strange setting called, 'pro photo'.  I'm not sure how Scott finally figured out how to change around the settings, but he's good at that, and all was right again! 

So I apologize that that's been the way you've seen my pictures.  Weird!  I wish I had time to go back and redo all of those posts, but life moves on quickly and there is barely time to do this blog post today.  Therefore the weird, ucky pictures will stay.  They will remind me of what I already know.  Computers are tricky and I only know how to do what I've memorized and what Scott has patiently explained to me. 

From here on out I hope to get the color right. 

These pictures were from a post back here.  (back when the pictures were yucky)  I edited this picture of my Mom and the color was spot on.  (on my screen)  On your screen it's all weird looking.  Since I never finished editing these pictures and decided that this was the week.  Today Abigail 'turns' 4 1/2 so it is the perfect day to feature some pictures of my favorite 4 1/2 year old and her Grandma.

 Here we go... cheers to good, happy color!

A child needs a grandparent to grow a little more securely into an unfamiliar world.  ~Charles and Ann Morse

UCONN Book Fair

This past weekend we went to the Connecticut Children's Book Fair held at UCONN.  As an elementary school teacher for years; I am a long time lover of beautiful children's books and authors.  I love to collect signed copies of books.  And now that Scott is an elementary principal he loves them too.  It was the perfect event for all of us!  We decided to go on Saturday because Anna's all time favorite author, Grace Lin would be there.  We are of course thrilled that Anna loves this Chinese American author.  She weaves the Chinese culture into her novels and picture books.  This was not the first time we met her but she had some new books out that we hoped we could have singed for Anna.  She has always written the sweetest things to Anna in the cover. 


She gave a presentation that told her story.  She told of how she was once embarrassed that she was Chinese in an all Caucasian school to finding her way to being proud of her heritage.  Her message was beautiful and I'm so glad that we were there to hear it.  She also gave an illustration lesson. 



While Anna and I were looking over books in the room i spotted Scott with Abigail at a little activity table... with Clifford! He was sitting with her coloring!



I scooted over quickly to get these shots. At first she was shy. but then she warmed up.



And then I think she wondered why he was staying there so long.



Clifford helped her color her pages, and signed her book. So cool! She has a new pal!



Anna was nervous waiting in line to talk with Grace Lin. She kept asking me what she should say. Grace Lin was gracious and kind. She spent time with Anna and signed all of her books. It was a special moment.



Although the book fair was mostly about author signings and presentations there were several book characters walking around. It was a fun afternoon!

A New Medicine

Abigail had to start a new medicine today.  And you can tell by the pictures she was positive she didn't want to try it. 



To start, she hates fruit, all fruit. So when I told her the directions said that it had to be mixed with applesauce she was upset.



I'm not sure if she's praying that she doesn't really have to take it or what!



And this goes on for about 15 whole minutes (even with dairy free chocolate chips ready to be eaten the second she's done). It's quite a thing to add to our before preschool morning routine! I thought it was hard to get out the door on time before!

Favorite Photo Friday ~ A Look at 9 days without power

I'll get to my favorite photo in a minute, but first back to my story...

Day 2:

On Sunday we stayed in and had a relaxing day by the living room fire.  I moved the coffee table out of the way to make room for toys.  The girls were giddy with the fact that they were playing in the "toys off limits" living room.  (we have a huge playroom/finished basement and a family room)  The living room is our sunniest room so we really lived in there. 

We played a ton of games that first day.



We dressed cozy and warm and stayed by our living room fire or family room fireplace. It was a fun first day. At this point I thought it was only going to be one day. (I had still not stepped outside yet)









I decided to go for a run. I didn't get very far. This is my usual running route. I quickly turned around and grabbed my camera. Really, the pictures don't show the destruction. Every street was impassable. Every street had poles down and trees covering the roads. I even saw a tree on top of a car! (but I felt funny taking a picture of that, poor family)  I think the saddest part was the demolished playscape in a backyard.  Completly leveled to the ground.  And I know that family with two kids:  5, 3, and one on the way...











Power lines just hanging everywhere!









And for my favorite photo Friday picture...



So needless to say I knew we would not be getting our power back on that day! And I was certain that there would be no school for at least the next day.

more to come...

A look at our 9 days with not a bit of exaggeration, for real!

So I'm a bit behind.  The power was out and we were in survival mode for two weeks.  Even after the power came back on it was all about calling tree companies (not a fun way to spend $1,000), refilling the fridges, and waiting for school to start again.  (it finally did today)  I'm also taking an awesome photography class and I had to catch up on my "homework" after the lights came back on. 

It all started last Saturday, October 29th.  I knew that the forecast was for a bunch of snow; the girls were excited!  Anna had 'art school' Saturday morning and I did a bit of Christmas shopping while she was in her class. 

As soon as we got home the snow started falling.  I called to check in with my church to see if I had to teach Sunday school the next morning.  After I knew that was cancelled I seized the opportunity to get a Christmas Card photo shoot done in the snow.  When has it ever snowed in October?  Perfect. 

Not so perfect.  The snow was falling harder than we thought and I had the girls in silk party dresses without a coat.  After 5 minutes we went back inside.  I dressed them in warm clothes, snow pants (which were not ready, I had to do some digging in the cedar closet)  boots, hats, etc.  We took some time playing in our backyard, but the girls didn't last long.  It was howling windy and oh so cold.  The snow was coming down so fast it was almost a white out. 

Abigail getting pelted with snow...





And then I heard some strange sounds. Creaking is really the only way I can describe it. Loud creaking and trees moaning all over the neighborhood. In our 10 minutes out back I saw the trees with their leaves still on getting lower and lower with the weight of the snow. And then some of the creaking turned into cracking. I was outside alone with the girls knowing that there were huge trees all around us. We literally ran for it. As soon as we got inside our power clicked off.

Here's a picture of my backyard before we headed in...  You can barely see my house... look in the arbor, that's my kitchen light. 



The girls in the snow...



It got dark quickly after that. We were able to find the flashlights and candles before dark, and the girls were so excited about our night without power. We had dinner by candlelight. Can you even find the girls at the table?



And then a candlelit bath





The flash went off in this one, but we are sitting near the fireplace in our family room. I'm reading our latest 'Little House' book to the girls with a flashlight.



And Anna read Abigail some stories before bedtime too.



We put two blow up mattresses on the floor in our bedroom because of the huge tree outside Anna's window. We also needed to shut their bedroom doors to keep all of the fireplace heat only in our bedroom. We thought it would be fun for "just one night". It ended up being eight.

Out of time for tonight. I'll finish up tomorrow...

The Halloween We Didn't Carve a Pumpkin

or should I call this post "9 days without power"

or "the week and a half I don't ever want to do again?"

or "so thankful to turn on the lights and do laundry"?

I'm not quite sure what to call this post but I can tell you that it feels weird to be sitting at my desk typing.  I haven't seen a computer in 9 days... not just because it wasn't turned on but also because I could never have even found it in the dark. 

I have tons of pictures of our 9 days without power but I have so much catching up to do that they'll just have to wait....

I can't wait to catch up on all of your Halloween pictures and perhaps live Halloween fun through that since there really wasn't Halloween this year.  More to come....

testing

3



3a



3b