My friend Rena had her twins a week ago Saturday. She was 38 weeks so the doctor induced her, and she had 2 healthy babies! The boy was 7 lbs 4 oz and the girl 7 lbs even! Amazing to have two seven plus pound babies! Anyway, for her baby-shower gift (she is waiting to have the shower until this weekend), I took newborn photos of the babies last Saturday, when they were a week old. It was the perfect age for pictures, they were sleepy and not too squirmy, but they were old enough to be eating well so with full bellies, they were easy to move around and it was really perfect! I spent about 3 hours there taking family pictures, baby pictures, babies with parents, etc. Joseph went with me to be my "photographer's assistant." He seems to enjoy photography too, I let him take pictures with one of my old digital point and shoots. So anyway, I was excited to go home and see how they turned out on the computer. But when I uploaded the pictures, I found that the lighting was horrible. They get almost no natural light in their house. I did the family pictures outside when the sun was behind some clouds, but then the sun came out so I had to move inside. They had tungsten lights on tracks in the living room, and I used those, tilting them to get more indirect light. It looked fine, but the problem was that I can't find my grey card to do the proper white-balance, and the color temperature of tungsten lights is really really orange. So the color was way, way, way off. I adjusted the color in photoshop, but then that introduced a lot of grain and so I was just really unhappy with the photos. I spent that night literally with a knot in my stomach about it. I hate it when things don't turn out right! I was also attempting to repair the ceiling in the family room where we've had so much leaking and water damage. We have a popcorn-style acoustical treatment on the ceilings, and so I got this spray stuff from Lowes to try and fix it, after I scraped off the water-damaged stuff and primed the sheetrock again. Anyway, that stuff is HORRIBLE, and it got everywhere, literally everywhere. All over the floor, the walls, the couch. I had even covered stuff with plastic, but it still got everywhere. So I then spent 3 hours cleaning this awful goopy popcorn stuff. So Saturday was not a good night.
Sunday was no better since I announced in Sacrament meeting that we are moving, and I totally started crying and then couldn't really stop for the rest of church. Just about any time anyone looked me in the eye I started crying again. Ugh. The horrible thing about moving is that you don't know any of the good that probably awaits you, you only know all the good you are leaving behind. I hate moving! So what a discouraging, blah weekend.
The good thing was that today was much better. I felt happier and more emotionally stable. I had Rena come over with her babies so I could get some individual shots with them (she wanted some with some props I hadn't brought to her house). So I was able to redo a few of the together shots as well. It was amazing what just a day and a half made, though. Today the babies were wiggly and alert and HAD to have their binkies. Saturday really was the magical day for taking pictures. Another good thing was that I spent about 5 hours tonight working with the original photos I took on Saturday, and I figured out a bunch of things with Photoshop and I am able to rescue just about all the shots that I thought were just going to be garbage. So overall I'm much happier. If I had gotten the lighting right in the first place, I could probably save myself about 10 hours of work, but I suppose this has also been a really good Photoshop learning experience.
I'm sorry, I know all this photography talk is totally boring to most of you, but since this letter serves as my journal, you will just have to deal with it!
Another great thing about today was that we got an awesome deal on a new washing machine. We are replacing all the appliances in our house in preparation for our move, and the washer was the last thing we needed to get. The old washer worked fine, so I was kind of reluctant to get a new one. But sometime last week (warning, really GROSS story will follow, so skip to next paragraph if you don't want to read a gross story regarding a mouse), a mouse got into the washer. It got down in between the drum and the outside "box" of the washer. Does that make sense? I was doing a load, and it scurried up and poked its head through the gap between the top of the washer and the rim of the drum. I almost screamed, and then just dropped the lid. Anyway, I opened up the lid again to try to see if it would come out on its own, but it didn't and sometime last week it died. So our laundry room started stinking to high heaven over the weekend and my laundry started to pile up. Last night Ben was my knight in shining armor and braved the stench of decaying mouse and hauled the old washer out to the side of the house and cleaned up under the washer where indeed there was ample evidence of a mouse habitation. So today I was in dire straights in terms of the state of laundry in the house, so Ben and I went to Home Depot to pick up a new washer. The first store we went to didn't have the model we wanted in stock, but the salesman called around and found one that did have it in stock, so we drove out to Miramar, only to discover that the one and only model they had in stock had been dented. So we got 50% off the sticker price just because the side panel was dented-- the side that would be flush up against the wall in our laundry room. So we got a brand-new Maytag washer for $179. I was very happy. And it works great and I'm slowly catching up with laundry.
The boys are doing A-OK.. They all got much-needed haircuts last night. I ended up buzzing Mosey's hair because it was pure torture for him and that was the fastest way I could get it over with for him. He looks cute with it, though. They played great with each other all afternoon. Mosey and Joseph had fun dissecting our rotting Jack-o-lantern on the front porch with a butter knife. Brigham drew a picture of a skeleton that is just amazing! He has all the bones just perfect and everything.
Joseph is getting to be such a good reader. He is starting to sound out words on signs as we drive around. He sounded out "Bank Atlantic" the other day as we were driving past fairly quickly. He is catching on to various rules of spelling, and is able to apply those rules correctly to other words (for instance, double consonants make the preceding vowel sound the short rather than long vowel sound). Last Friday we went ot Walmart and I got the boys each a compass. Joseph loves directions, but has a disagreement with his teacher about which way is North, so I got him the compass to take to class so he can test it out. He caught on very quickly how to use the compass and on the way home whenever I asked him what direction we were driving, he was able to correctly identify it.
Brigham asked me on the way to that same Walmart trip why girls don't like to play with boys. I dug a little trying to figure out where that question came from, and he said there are some girls in his class that he wants to play with, but when he asks if he can play, they say "no." :-( Poor guy. Actually, it turns out that they are nice little girls, and like to draw with him at the art table, but when they go over to the other centers-- housekeeping for example, they only like to play with other little girls. So we had an interesting conversation about how girls like to play different things than boys, and how boys and girls each usually feel more comfortable with kids like them. The boys did mention how the boys in their class like to run around and wrestle, and the girls don't like doing that. :-) Brigham also has got a reputation in his class for being the best artist, from what I gather. Brigham brings home these creations every day that he makes during centers time, and he tells me how the other kids all want to see what he makes. They are pretty cool, if I do say so myself. He makes these folding type creations with various drawings portraying a story that literally "unfolds" as he unfolds the paper. Now if only I can figure out what to do with the enormous stacks of papers that constitute Brigham's body of work so far.
Mosey is being a very good boy recently. He's been sleeping on his own much better. Not too many tantrums. Talking all the time! At Home Depot today I was reminded of a story I don't think I shared at the time. A few weeks ago we went to Brandsmart to get a new dishwasher and refrigerator. As we were walking through the rows and rows of appliances, poor Mosey got totally freaked out. He was terrified that all the washers and dryers and dishwashers and microwaves were going to turn on at any second. Mosey doesn't like unidentified sounds as it is (he must ask me 100 times a day, "What's that sound mom?"), and the potential of dozens of loud appliances turning on at once was really frightening I guess. He clung to me like superglue and kept saying something that I couldn't quite understand. Finally I understood what he was saying: "They're going to kill me, mom!" He was afraid all those appliances were going to kill him! I had to reassure him pretty much continuously while we were in the store that no, they were not plugged in, and were not going to kill him! Poor guy-- I think he must have at some point had a really bad nightmare involving murderous large appliances...
One more Mosey story-- when Rena brought over her babies today, Mosey was totally mesmerized. He's been around small babies a few times before, but I guess he's reached an age where they are now interesting to him. But it made me a little wistful to see how ignorant he is of all things baby. He was asking me what the babies' bottles were, what the binky was, he was very interested in the little umbilical cords, and wanted to hold the babies. He was very gentle with them, and sweet, so that made me smile.
Ok, enough of this long letter. It is ridiculously late. Good thing there's no school tomorrow. Maybe the boys will let me nap a bit in the morning.
Don't forget to vote everyone!
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