If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space

I've known for several months that my camera needs some cleaning....specifically, the sensor. My photos have little specks on them, which is dust on the sensor. This happens quite easily with a DSLR, especially if you use your camera frequently and change lenses often. Dust is bound to settle on the sensor and that turns up on your images.

In May I called the camera store where I purchased my camera body, and was told how much it'd be to clean my camera (Eeeek!) and that it would take 6-8 weeks. Are they kidding me? I'm supposed to be without my camera for two months?!

I figured there had to be a way I could do this myself, so I started hunting and searching online and did find one approved method for cleaning the sensor; of course, Nikon doesn't approve it, and if the sensor gets ruined in the cleaning process, the least of my problems is the voided warranty. I'll be out one very expensive camera body that took me 2 years of saving the money I earned from selling kids clothes on ebay. Decisions, decisions....pay $150 to have someone take 2 months to blow the dust around inside my camera body or invest $80 in the supplies I'd need to do it myself (many times, not just once.) I decided that I needed to live on the edge and do it myself, so that was Mike's birthday present to me......back in June.

It's taken me two months to work up my nerve (the irony of 2 months passing isn't lost on me.) I love my camera and don't want to hurt it....especially because I can't afford to replace it! It's replacement model (albeit a better version than mine) is about $750, and that's just the body. I took a photo to view on my monitor to see all the dark dust bunnies on my sensor. I lost count at 22 (you might not be able to see most of them, but they're there.) Basically I wind up having to Photoshop out all the dust from most of my photos, which quite frankly, is a pain in the butt.

22+ DUST BUNNIES

The kids were off to AWANAS last night, so I set up my sensor cleaning business in the bathroom where the light is high and the traffic is low. I mounted my camera on a tripod, wheeled my "office" chair in there, said a quick prayer, and hovered over the camera body after doing a "mirror lock-up" (forces the camera to expose the sensor). I felt like a dentist hovering over my wide open camera set up on the tripod.

My shoulder and neck were a bit stiff with tension by the time I walked out of the bathroom, but I'm pleased to say it was a successful endeavor. Take a look at the after photo - a couple little particles there, but overall, a huge improvement (and major relief - the camera worked to take the after photo!):

Apple Picking

Charlotte's preschool class had a field trip to a local apple orchard last week. The kids had fun playing in the kid's area, plus learning about how apples come to be on a tree! Interesting tidbit: the number of seeds an apple has is due to how many times a bee visited the apple blossom. After viewing the informational video, we took a hayride out to the orchards to pick some Gala apples.

After our trip to the orchard, we all gathered in the pavilion for some apple cider and apple cider donut (these are so awesome....maybe because I only eat them this time of year!) As you can see, my fruit lovin' daughter lets the donut sit while she eats one of her fresh-picked apples (the donut didn't sit there long, though.)

Tortilla Lasagne

I got this recipe out of a magazine. It meets my criteria of being easy and mighty tasty (in my opinion anyway!) I used low-fat cheese and low-fat sour cream, as well as ground sirloin to help shave off some of the fat and cholesterol (not that it helps much in a dish like this, but at least I get a C+ for effort.) And since my kids freak if we serve them anything too spicy, I eliminated the cayenne pepper, and I think I reduced cheese by 25% because I didn't have enough. It still came out great. It's sort of hard to go wrong here. Make it your own.


1 pound ground beef
1 cup water
1 envelope taco seasoning
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1-1/2 cups sour cream
1-1/2 tsp chili powder
2 cups shredded monterey Jack cheese
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
8-10 flour tortillas (6")
1 (8 oz) jar salsa
1 small onion, diced

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large skillet, cook beef and drain. Stir in water, taco seasoning, garlic powder and cayenne (if using). Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine sour cream and chili powder. In another bowl, combine cheeses. Spray cooking spray into a 9x13 pan. Arrange 1/2 of the tortillas on bottom of dish, overlapping. Spread 1/2 cup of salsa on top. Layer with half of the meat mixture, then onion, and spread 1/2 of the sour cream mixture over the top. Sprinkle with 1.5 cups cheese mixture. Repeat layers (retaining 1 cup of cheese mixture.) Bake uncovered at 375 degrees for 35 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining cheese mixture. Bake 10 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting. Enjoy!

The Best Laid Plans Oft Go Awry

Or officially, "The best laid schemes O' Mice an 'Men gang aft agley" ~ Robert Burns


Our family enters the house through the garage and into the kitchen. This is a high traffic area and there's not a lot of space, so this created a need for somewhere to place coats, shoes, boots, and backpacks so we're not tripping over it trying to get in and out of the house. So I asked Mike to take just a little room out of the garage for a closet in the kitchen. It turned out great, if I do say so myself, and I can still get my car in the garage.

One half of the closet is for canned goods, bathroom supplies, and extra linens. The other half has shoe shelves (one for each person), some hooks down low for the kids' coats and backpacks, and a coat rack up high for the bigger folks. Unfortunately this was too much trouble for my children, and rather than continually fight a losing battle, I opted to purchase a picnic basket from Good Will for $4.99 into which they could throw their shoes. The basket is located outside of the closet up against a wall. Easy peasy!

I want to know where I went wrong with this idea. I thought it'd be easier for the kids to throw their items into a basket instead of going to the huge hassle of 1.) opening the closet door; 2.) putting their shoes on a shelf and 3.) closing the closet door. Instead, they need only to take aim and throw their shoes into the basket. And if this "basket system" is used effectively, their shoes will be there when they need them again, thus avoiding last minute dashes through the house looking for the mate to a pair of shoes. Instead, I have this:






Again I ask you, "Where did I go wrong?" Should I have just gotten them a pair of flip flops and called it a day? Am I a horrible parent for giving my children a couple pairs of shoes from which to choose or to ask them to keep said shoes contained in a conveniently located basket? It's parental moments like this that make me want to bang my head against a wall.

More Photos of Our Trip to the Big Woods

Sorry to keep torturing you. It's like the proverbial "vacation slide show", isn't it? The good news is that you're not a captive, and if this doesn't interest you in the least, you don't have to look or read.

On the last day of our trip, we took a trip up to Black River Harbor in Michigan (UP). This is along the shores of Lake Superior. We did a little walking along the piers to check out the boats, then visited the beach briefly. Afterwards, we picnicked on the grounds before suiting up and going back to the beach. To get to the beach, you need to cross this bridge then follow the path for about 1/4 mile.






Before we got our suits on, we dipped our tootsies into the frigid waters. It was a scorching 89 degree day, so the cool water felt wonderful......up to a point. Any water touching parts above the ankles felt like swimming in a glass of ice water. I managed to submerge up to the top of my legs, and that was about as far as I could stand it. My hat is off to the others who went up to their chests or under the water.

One thing that I noticed right away is how gorgeously clear are the waters of Lake Superior. It looked clear enough to drink (although we didn't), unlike any body of water around where I live in Illinois.

Miss Charlotte cools off on the shore

You'll notice a lot of rocks on the beach. Plenty of rocks along the beach and about 10 feet into the water. Once past that, it's a sandy bottom (I don't know this for certain, but I'll take the other's word for it.) We took a bag of rocks back with us - they all look so brilliant and sparkly when you pluck them from the crystal waters, but when dry aren't much to look at. Makes me want a little waterfall/pond in our front yard just so there's a spot to put all those rocks, worn smooth from years of being in the water.

Another interesting thing - it's apparently illegal to take the drift wood from the shores because it's technically Canadian wood that has drifted over. No one was sure if the Canadians come over periodically to collect their prodigal wood off the beaches, but we left it alone other than using the logs as benches to sit on.

Who doesn't love a good 'ole fashioned camp-fire?

Doesn't everyone eat leftover pizza at a camp-fire?

The, uh, facilities at the lake where we went fishing :-)

It's A Beautiful Day To Play

We're getting hit with a bit of rain (not hurricane related; that'll come later this week.) It's just a slow, steady rain with no accompanying wind, thunder or lightening. Combine that with a trench that I dug around the new landscaping area out front, which is collecting a whole lotta rain water, and you've got the makings of one fine day for a 7 year old boy.












Special thanks to Mike for standing out there to hold the umbrella over me and my camera. :-D

What It Was All About

I was in the process of posting a bunch of photos from our Labor Day Weekend trip up to see the in-laws, and while I was looking over a few of the photos, one in particular struck me as deserving of it's own post. I took this photo on Saturday night when we went back to the lake to do some more fishing. Mike and Chris got a chance to go out on the lake sans kids, while the kiddos were busily capturing frogs and placing them in Aaron's frog habitat. And me? Well I was busy doing what I was longing to do all week before we even arrived - capturing photos of whatever struck my fancy. That night, I was trying to photograph something that is hard to place your finger on. Being that we don't live up north (and don't get up there very often), it's easy to forget how peaceful it is there. The sky is bigger, the stars are brighter, the trees are taller....and if you listen, you can hear the quiet. I had to let it wash over me, just to fill me up a little bit, because I knew.....eventually.....I'd have to go back home to the traffic, noise, brightly lit night skies, and dimly lit stars. I do love my home, but sometimes I need to inject some calm into my life...

Chevy Chase Has Got To Go

I think I've mentioned before that I do Taebo workouts as my main form of exercise. The music, if you can call it that, is awful on the videos, so I mute it and create a play list on my MP3 player and listen to that instead. I recently created a new play list, 'cause I get tired of the same 'ole thing all the time. My new playlist has the song, "You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon. Every day when I get to that song I'm immediately conjuring up images of the 1986 music video of Paul Simon and Chevy Chase, who lip syncs the entire song. Sort of a strange thing to think about when you're exercising, maybe even a little distracting. I found the same problem when I had the song, "Savin' Me" by Nickelback - kept thinking of the video while working out. I think I need to avoid watching any sort of music video of songs I might want to have on an exercise play list.

Because I don't want to be alone in my imagination, I'm going to share the imagery of Chevy Chase with you (tip: First hit the stop button on the play list off to your right). While you're doing that, I'm off to create a new play list.

The Proof Is In The Pictures

Thanks to our neighbor, Sheila, I was able to go with the fam up north to visit my in-laws and not have to worry about Keats (who seems to be doing mostly OK now.)

My in-laws live about 6+ hours north of us, and our kids refer to it as "the big woods" (for obvious reasons.) While our trip wasn't run, run, run, it was still filled with daily activities that kept the kids and adults busy.....fishing, climbing, frog collecting (kids not adults), swimming, sand castle building, rock collecting, off-roading (technically speaking, more on that later), but most importantly, just visiting and enjoying family! It was a most enjoyable and relaxing trip all around, and was long overdue, since we haven't been up there in over 3 years (the kids don't even remember the last trip!) And it also gave me an opportunity to take photos! I took over 300 photos and am sorting through them all now. Here are a couple that I've had a chance to "approve" for publishing (if you want to see it enlarged, just click on it):

Eric stands on the little pier to do some fishin'

Uncle Chris helps Eric out (i.e., he puts on the bait, casts the line, reels it in, and gets "Eric's" fish off the hook.) My child is such a city boy.

My brother-in-law Chris smiles over at Heidi.

And Heidi smiles back. Aren't they a cute couple? (Sorry, couldn't resist; you guys are too cute together! ;-)

Little Man Zach off to show Eric how it's done!

Zachary and Uncle Joe (Heidi's younger brother)

Mike finds a secluded spot for some fishing away from the noisy kids, but not too far away for my telephoto lens :-)

By now you may be wondering why there are no photos of me fishing (or maybe you're not). Well, I really don't do fishing, not my thang, but the real reason there are ZERO photos of me from this trip is that my husband never thinks to grab the camera from me to shoot a few, plus he wants me to "pose". I really dislike posed photos; I'm more into candids because people are more relaxed and natural, unlike posed photos. Anyway, the "proof" that I was there on this vacation is "in the photos" - that there are any. :-)

The lake where we went fishing is on private property; i.e., Heidi's family owns about 1,000 acres of land, complete with many large lakes. The dirt roads were like a labyrinth for us, but Chris and Heidi knew their way around no problem. They took us on many of the roads, plenty of "scenic routes" and interesting things to look at up in the trees. We saw several dear too. It was really incredible for us to be the only people at the lake, to have it all to ourselves! What a treat!

The kids all lined up in the row boat to go out with Chris and Mike to do a little off-shore fishing (as it turned out, it was more like a little off-shore whining N complaining. Glad I stayed on the beach.)

Little Miss with her new fishing pole.....not sure if she caught any fish, but she did manage to hook her brother once in the leg and another time on the nose. Tears were shed over the nose-hooking (not hers, though.) It was downright dangerous being anywhere near my kids while they learned to cast their lines.

Aaron is probably spotting a frog, which were in abundance!

My nephew, Zachary again. He's at that wonderful age where he loves the camera and he made it easy for me to get so many cute photos of him!

Oh no, a posed photo
Eric, Zach, Charlotte, & Aaron at the lake on Sunday night. We went back for some more fishing and a little camp fire.

And that's all the photos I have ready to show for now. Hopefully I'll have a few more to share later this week.