Photography

A few of you have been leaving some nice comments about the pictures I've taken of Carson, so I thought I'd explain how I got into photography.

I've always been interested in it for as long as I can remember but never really had the instruction or money to actually become serious about it. Back in 2006, my good friend Joe C. was needing some help with the weddings he shot, so he asked me if I'd like to (really) learn how to use a DSLR so I could help him. I was very excited about this opportunity so I ended up buying a used Canon 20D and Joe let me borrow his extra Canon 50mm f/1.8. It was the cheapest setup at that time without sacrificing the quality of the shots (ie - not having a cheap camera and cheap lens).

Today, I do weddings on the side as well as any other needs a client has. My humble website is http://www.finetunedphoto.com/ where I have all the pertinent info about me and a small gallery of shots. While I keep things strictly business on that website, I do update a small gallery of personal shots I've taken. That secret URL can be found at http://www.finetunedphoto.com/misc/. I made this for myself so I could easily pull up galleries, but anyone can see it. In there you'll find a lot of cool shots from things like our Tahiti trip we went on back in May 2007 as well as Washington, D.C., just to name a few galleries. Photography is not my career, but it is a hobby I enjoy and hope to continue to develop and improve on.

Do you shop Amazon.com?

To all my friends and family out there, I am making a special request. If you are ordering from Amazon.com will you please click on the below link before ordering? The charity I am involved with, Love Without Boundaries, gets a percentage of your sales if you go through their website. Once you get to the Love Without Boundaries site, look at the bottom right side of the page where it says "How To Help." Click on "Shop AMAZON.com" to get started! Or I'll make it really easy for you and provide a link right here: Shop Amazon and help Love Without Boundaries

Thank you! Every little bit helps, more than you know. And if you want to see some of the faces you are helping, these are some pictures that bring a smile to my face.

This is a group of babies in an orphanage. Look them all standing up in their cribs - like they are ready to start dancing once someone turns on the music :)

This is little Gracie, and she is just beaming. The pigtails and double chin crack me up!

The dimples on this boy are so adorable. The fact that he is also missing an eye and half his nose doesn't seem to bother him because he's just smiling away and loving life!

This group of orphans just received new shoes and they are showing them off! I can't believe how well-behaved they are to sit there all in a row, not moving an inch. And I love how the girls in the back all have the same haircut. Don't you just laugh when you see that?

Little Man Next To Christmas Tree

It's been a while since I took some pictures of the Little Man, so I laid him down next to the Christmas tree and used that as my light source.












I hope you like them.

If you are ever having a bad day...

Maybe this video of "misheard lyrics" will make you laugh and cry as much as I did tonight!

Pearl Jam - Yellow Ledbetter

Carson does the "Numa Numa" dance

I was recently introduced to this video and had to laugh out loud. Yes, I may be a little behind the times since Wikipedia says this video was released in 2004. Needless to say, the song was stuck in my head ALL DAY LONG for several days. I couldn't get it to go away, which ended up being somewhat torturous. No amount of singing "I Am A Child of God" helped either... *sigh* And can you believe 22 million people have watched this video?! He's not embarrassed about it either.



Then while doing some playtime with Carson, I decided it was time to introduce him to the "Numa Numa" song as well. He caught on fast!

Ma-ia-hii
Ma-ia-huu
Ma-ia-haa
Ma-ia-haha!
(Repeated 4 times with increasing intensity)

Hello?

It's me - your Duke!

Numa Numa hey!

And for a little YouTube fun, these are the "misheard" lyrics of the song. Enjoy!

Carson meets the Wiener dogs

When we brought Carson home from the hospital for the first time, Shelby and Royce weren't too sure what to think of him. You can hear little "squeaks" from Royce because he's uncertain, and Shelby barks a little when Carson makes a noise or moves. Yes, I am the protective mother who wasn't sure how the dogs would react, so I was being on the cautious side with my orders.



Things have turned out great since! The dogs have never shown any aggression towards Carson and are still a little curious when we bring him home in the car seat or take him out of his swing. Boy will they be in for a surprise when he starts crawling on their level :)

Carson pictures

It seems like every person I've talked to has asked why there aren't any more pictures on the blog, so this post is for you! I've spent the last couple of hours getting these together, I hope you like them.

Here's our first set of nurses at the hospital, Amanda Jo (blonde hair) and Mindy. All of them were so incredibly awesome - we love that hospital and their staff. Their shift was 7pm to 7:30am.


Just some wishful thinking on the birth time... can't have everything be the number 10.


Here's Tracy. She was the other nurse during labor. The maternity ward was so busy they had to call in more nurses. This was supposed to be her day off.


Here's Carson after his first bath.


Showing off his full head of hair.


Here's angry Carson. Thankfully he doesn't show this side too often. This outfit was given to us by Aunt Jane. We love it!


All you have to do is fold him up like a burrito and he calms right down.


Why yellow der!


Grandpa Green checking on his favorite grandson.


GG looking on as well.


Even Shelby tries to catch some sleep during the day.


Here's the "awww" pic.


And here are the most recent pics. The 1 week mark for Carson.


"Whoa daddy, that's a cool camera!"


Can you tell we love these pajamas?


And here's the last one.


Hope you liked them!

Carson finally made it!

At 12:33pm on October 10th, 2008, Carson Daniel Green came racing into our lives at a portly 10 pounds 1 ounce, and 22 inches long. Lachelle is the talk among all the nurses and everyone refers to her as the "1o lb mother" and hail her as the Queen of Gateway Hospital. This may be edited by the time she reads it, but it's my interpretation of what an accomplishment she completed.

Lachelle had started having strong contractions around 5:30pm on Thursday, October 9th, and by midnight that night, we were admitted to the hospital. After enduring 2 1/2 hours of contractions, Lachelle went for the epidural and really helped ease the pain (and let me get a few hours of sleep). Around 8:30am, the real pushing started and continued until Carson made it. Lachelle was a super trooper throughout the whole ordeal and loved when the anesthesiologist came to help her deal with the pain. It truly was a miracle to watch it happen and I even cut the umbilical cord! (I can be a bit squeamish with these things but I did fine).

Right now both mom and baby are doing their best to catch up on some much needed rest while nurses are coming in every 30 minutes to check on something. If someone wanted to know if they can come by and see the baby, the best time will likely be on Sunday when we are scheduled to go home. Thanks for all your prayers.

The Name Game

One of the big questions we've been asked during the past 9 months (and especially more recently) is "Have you chosen a name?" My family relatives are known for keeping baby names under top secret until the child is born. It might be because they don't want anyone else to steal the name should the person asking happen to be pregnant as well, or because they don't want to hear any criticism about the name chosen. I had some clients tell me about their friend who named their child "Furious. Furious Gage." I don't know what his last name was, but they said he sure lived up to his first! Can you imagine a little Furious toddler running around and creating havoc for his parents? I can only imagine they will regret the name when he reaches his teenage years and they enter him into Anger Management classes.

So while we aren't trying to be bold and make a statement with our child's name like some celebrities have chosen to do, having the last name "Green" does limit some of the options for a first name. For example, Forest and Kelly are out. As are Leif, Sage, Hunter, Apple (ala Gwyneth Paltrow), Olive, Spring, Christmas, Gain (Gane) and any others found on this color list. There's also the consideration of how his name will appear on school rosters: Last Name, First Name. So that eliminates a few more: Pearce (too close to 'peace'), Bary (similar to 'bay'), Tre ('tree' and 'tea'), and of course, Tambourine :) Hey, we could have fun with this all day long, right?

I read on a baby name forum that someone named their boy Duran (like the 80's group Duran Duran). There were multiple comments about what a silly name it was, etc, but someone piped in that the parents would be forgiven only if they name their next daughter "Rio." LOL! I got to thinking about that the other day, and being that we live in the southwest, and Spanish is practically the official language in Arizona, if we were to ever have a girl, we could name her Rio. Rio Green. But the Spanish translation would be Rio Verde. Do I hear a yes??

And by the way, we don't know what we're naming our baby boy yet. Or maybe we do... and we just aren't telling! :P

Lyrics to "Rio" by Duran Duran:
Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand.
Just like that river twisting through a dusty land.
And when she shines she really shows you all she can
Oh Rio Rio dance across the Rio Grande.

No news is...

Well, there isn't really any news right now. So it can't be either good or bad. The little ticker on our blog would indicate that our little bundle of "boy" has arrived. Well...he hasn't. So the clock keeps on tickin' and we keep on waitin'.

You've Been Barack Roll'd

For those of you who understand what it means to be "Rickrolled" you might appreciate this video. Someone spent a lot of time putting this together, and I want to give them props for it. And who knew Barack could sing AND dance?

http://www.videosift.com/video/Youve-Been-Barack-Rolld

Well, then again, maybe he can't...

Great emergency flashlight

As some of you may know, I'm sort of a flashlight freak. I admit, it is one of the dorkiest things to get excited over, but I'm very comfortable with my nerd status and wear it proudly (maybe too proudly) and there's something about flashlights that I love. I already have a small collection, and if I had more spare cash laying around, it'd be MUCH greater. Anyways, with a baby on the way, one starts to get serious about taking care of their family, so I've taken it upon myself to put together some 72 hour kits in case we have to leave the house in a hurry. These days, you never know.

One of the first things on my list is finding the right flashlight for the job. I've done enough research to realize those crank flashlights are about as worthless as a cow pie and would never trust one with my life. There are too many reports of the crank breaking, winding them too much and breaking them, winding them not enough, the built in batteries going bad, etc. etc. A company called NightStar does make a better solution to the crank flashlights where a magnet is placed in a cylinder and as you shake it, the magnet passes through a coil and charges a capacitor. This is good because there are no battery cells to go bad, and they're pretty indestructible. Here's what one looks like:



I'm pretty sure you can buy these at your local Target and they can be found online for around $30 like from here. While this would be a good "final resort" candle (the true flashlight addicts refer to them as 'candles'), I think I have a better solution.

The main pitfall of NightStars is 1) you have to shake them, and 2) they are about as bright as the moon. Please direct your attention to this little gem:



The Fenix E01 is my choice for emergency flashlights for several reasons. First, this little guy runs on a single AAA battery and will net you 21 hours of use (11 full power, 10 hours of dimmer light). One little AAA battery gets you that much candle light! Second, these guys are nearly indestructible, are 100% water proof, and can easily fit in your pocket, be hung around your neck, or securely packed away with minimal space and weight. The third reason I love these things is they are far brighter than any crank or NightLight and are dirt cheap! If you click on this link, you'll see they run $15 a piece and come in a variety of colors. That price includes shipping so no worries about getting nailed with outrageous shipping costs (that's a whole other blog entry for another day).

Now before you go out and order 4 of these babies like I did (got one in black, olive, blue, and purple), I need to inform you of your battery choice. Since the purpose of these lights are for long term storage, do not, I repeat, do NOT put some run-of-the-mill alkaline AAA in one of these things. Alkaline batteries (these are your normal Duracell and Energizer) will leak after a year or so and becomes a pain to switch them out in order to avoid ruining the light. Instead of alkaline, buy lithium batteries like these Energizers (4th one down on the list). Lithiums will store a lot longer (my vehicle has a single AA flashlight that has 4 years on the same lithium battery; remember that's 4 AZ summers), give you a brighter light, and can power your light longer than an alkaline. Keep a few of these in your 72 hour bag and you'll have more than enough light to suit your needs.

I hope this has helped you learn a thing or two about flashlights. For $15 a piece, you should not only have one in your kits, but also have one in every car that you own.

Grandma's 80th Birthday Party

Yesterday we attended Grandma Smithson's 80th birthday party. It was good to see all the family again and also great to see Grandma doing so well. She really doesn't look a day over 65! Here are a few pictures of the event. The rest of the album can be found here. Hope you enjoy them.

"Give it to The King"

After several months of friendly reminders that the old, cheap garbage disposal was on its last leg, I started doing what every sensible nerd does... that's right, you guessed it: RESEARCH! Yes, in this day and age you can research garbage disposals on the internet till your heart's content. Of course what the major hardware stores carry is utter crap and grossly overpriced, so with my exhaustive and extensive reading I came across a company called Waste King, and how aptly named it is.

Since money is always a concern, I went with the $120 version called the Waste King Legend Series 3200. All the Legend Series disposals are good, and they handle whatever you throw at them. The price difference is based on your warranty and how fast the disposal will demolish whatever you just fed it.

This is our old disposal. It is a sad excuse of a disposal. I was glad to get rid of it.

It had to go because we were at a point of putting nothing down there for fear of a clog. Not to mention every time you ran it, it sounded like marbles were being chewed on. After the wiener dogs kept running away when we turned it on, Waste King came to the rescue.

Here's a picture of the installed product.

We went from a 1/3HP to a 3/4HP, full stainless steel innards, 2700rpm of raw power. Installation took about 45 minutes, roughly double what it should have taken me, but that's how things go the first time around.

We now throw anything and everything at "The King" because we know he never complains and always does his job. Whenever we question if we should throw it in the garbage disposal or in the trash, the answer is almost always "give it to The King!"

Feed our Blog

Ok, that doesn't really mean give our blog some food. It means, rather, that you can sign up to receive emails automatically when we update our blog (this way we don't have to physically tell everyone via email when something new has been posted). If you are familiar with feeds already, then you can set one up using your preferred method. For those of you who still think when I say "feed" I am referring to "food," then you are probably confused, and so we've made this super-easy for you :)

Step 1: See the little box in the top right that says "Subscribe Via Email" and "Enter your email address"? Do just that, right now.
Step 2: Press the Subscribe button.
Step 3: Type in the verification code in the pop-up box
Step 4: A confirmation email will be sent to you. Click on the link to confirm.

That's it - you are done! Happy Feeding! And with that, now it's time for me to figure out what to do for dinner...

Geyser

This will be Baby10 and BiG10 in the near future! I think the squealing part at the end is what makes me laugh every time :)

Baby Geyser

(if you use Firefox, you will have to right click on the tab and choose "Switch rendering engine" to get the video to work.)

The Wienernationals

Well, it wasn't exactly the National race yet, but it was a qualifying race for the Nationals (to be held in California). And while we didn't get to race our dogs this year, we did take them to participate in the festivities - well, some of them. We weren't crazy enough to dress them up in costumes.


This guy has just attacked a lifeguard! (He's wearing a shark sweater; you can't see the shark head very well because of the sunglasses)


This dog just went fishing and is dragging his catch along with him.


And this guy is taking his job as the Security dog very seriously. Doesn't want to leave his post!

Shelby and Royce did the Bobbing for Sausages, though.


Royce wasn't sure what to do at first, but the smell was tempting.


So instead he just licked the water and tried to get some of the sausage flavor on his tongue.


Shelby came along though and figured it out pretty fast (she's also been known to blow bubbles in the bathtub through her nose.)


Snagged one!


Royce is jealous as she gobbles it down. She wanted to do it again and again, but we eventually had to drag her away. She could have eaten the whole pan of them if we'd let her!