Reach for the Moon!

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As requested a moon shot in honor of Neil Armstrong.  Don't forget to always reach for the moon!

This shot was taken just before sunset around 8PM, and the moon was very orange tinted.  Later in the night  it was more the typical color, but I didn't take my camera back out.  It sure was pretty!

The boys and I attended a birthday party for a child in Johnny's class at school last night.  Check out this awesome Angry Birds cake!

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Lots of fun in the pool at the party too!  I can always count on Johnny for a great splash!

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Google Presentation in a Blog

This is a test post to figure out how to imbed a Google Docs (Drive) Presentation into a blog. The kids have been working on these slideshows, and I need to work out the kinks so I can show them how to do this cleanly.

The pictures used in the slides are for educational purposes only and I am sure they all belong to Nintendo.





OK, on my blog format a custom size of 400X329 works. Small size of 480X389 might work on the kids' newer blog templates.

Come Here My Pretty

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A shot I took when I took the butterfly shot on Wednesday.  Not sure what type of spider, but I thought he was way cool.  I like the dof but maybe I should have brightened the shot a tad?  Cropped slightly but otherwise unprocessed.

There were quite a few beetles hanging out with the butterfly and spider.

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The kids are having a blast with the new (refurbished) kitchen table computer.  Yesterday Joey and Madi both added new blog posts and Joey and Johnny started making slide show presentations using Google Docs (Drive).  Fun stuff!  I am lucky if I can get to my computer as when one is on the kitchen table one sometimes I have to let the other on mine.  Love their enthusiasm.

Clean and Posed

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Salvo, Madi's dog, got a bath yesterday morning.  Teen, Madi's mom, called me over because he was being too cute!  He was quite agreeable to getting up in the pink chair, and the flowers were in a pot nearby, so we set them in the scene too.

From a little earlier in the morning, Firedog Salvo was out for a walk.  Ins't he cute?!?

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I spent some time yesterday designing two We've Moved notification cards for Don's sister.  This is the one we printed with her new address in the lower right corner.  How convenient that a Florida U-Haul truck was in Willow Springs so I could take a picture of it yesterday!

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I had also designed this more formal version too.  The address would go in the middle of the knocker.  That's from my front door.

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Don and I hope she'll be pleased when he presents her with these next week.

Yellow on Yellow

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These pics were taken at the end of someone's driveway on the way home from dropping the kids off at school this AM.  There are a lot of plants grown up in front of this house so no way the owners could see me. It's a jungle out there!  However the family dog finally noticed me and started fussing a bit so I left.  I was basically done anyway.

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I have all 3 kids blogging now:-)
http://goldmanjh.blogspot.com --> Joey
http://mrjpgoldman.blogspot.com --> Johnny
http://madikidd.blogspot.com --> Madi

It's taking some time to assist them but worth the effort.  I gave Madi my Canon SX10 IS that was just sitting in the corner over here, and she's going to town taking pics to put in her posts.  At this point I manage offloading them for her and making sure they are OK but soon I am sure she'll be doing that too. Any appropriate encouragement you'd like to give the kids is welcome. I'm shooting for one post each week per kid but since it's a new thing they are pretty active right now.

It's What's for Dinner

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Catching up on my daily posts...

Donnie, the boys, and I are still doing great on our lifestyle eating changes (aka the diet).  Donnie and I have both lost 30lbs. and Joey has slimmed down at least 10lbs.  What a difference eating right makes!  We are still eating low carb and very rich right fat foods.  Pictured here is sauteed onions in coconut oil, cauliflower mash (if you have not tried this you just have to!), carrots cooked in the crock pot with a chuck roast and Italian seasonings and diced tomatoes, and gravy made out of the crock pot juices.  I used butter, unbleached organic flour, and whole milk to make the gravy along with the crock pot juices.  It  came out pretty yummy. How can you go wrong with gravy like that, right?  We eat reasonable portions and are very satisfied with meals like this.  Joey no longer asks for seconds and sometimes says he is full even before he's done.  This is a huge change for him.  It's great to eat good foods, lose weight, and not be running around hungry.

Clouds all day today:-(

Homework Time

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Joey on the left with (Princess) Kitty and Johnny on the right.  This is a typical scene at our house after school each day.  Joey reads for 30 minutes with Kitty.  Right now he's reading the 5th Harry Potter book and very proud and excited about it.  Kitty really is content to sit with him.  She's been a great new addition to the household.  Doesn't scratch, doesn't jump on counters, fur is manageable even though it's long, tolerates the boys:-) and even gets along with our dog, Blaze.  Blaze is under the table beside Johnny btw.  She's never far either.  Johnny is working on his math.  For now it's his favorite and easy subject.  I hope it stays that way.  That's a pretty big smile considering he'd rather be watching his daily recorded Pokemon show on the DVR.

Had problems with my heatpump/AC last night.  I guess I noticed the house a bit extra warm on Saturday but didn't think about it too much.  Then after school yesterday it was really warm.  Even the fan wouldn't come on.  I tried to troubleshoot it myself but didn't get too far.  Wasn't a circuit breaker issue.  Donnie got on the line with me from FL and he had me find and clean out the drain pipe which was really clogged.  I guesstimate 3 cups of water came out of it.  The unit came back on.  We were overjoyed.  Donnie is the best!  Things were looking good for a bit but then unfortunately the cold air wasn't really pumping out well.  I found ice on the unit, and that most likely means low on coolant.  Oh well.  Repair guy is on the way.

I'm trying to get back into a daily swing of things. I realize I'm a day behind on my posts kindof.  Oh well.  I'm doing the best I can right now.

Yard Sale Entertainment

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Madi and her mom, Teen, helped me with the yard sale on Saturday.  They got up early to come over and stayed with me through carting off what didn't sell to the local thrift store, Guardian Angel.  I am/was so appreciative.

Today's daily is a picture of Madi using chalk to make a cat head.  I thought it turned out great.