Life in Motion...

Camera Details....

Here is my baby!

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX15

My husband bought this for me a couple years ago for Christmas. Our other camera had fallen off the counter and hadn't been the same since. I think the final straw was when my daughters birthday pictures hadn't turned out because we were using a disposable camera. I was devistated!

I have pretty much taught myself the settings and I know there is still lots to know. I play around with the settings depending on what I am shooting.

The lightning pictures I had the dial set to manual and I was leaving the shutter open for 8 seconds and had the apeture setting on 8.0. I put it on the manual focus, but on this camera if you press it all the way down it first auto focuses to get the closests sharp focus. Then I would leave it for a few shots and repeat this again so it would refocus automatically.

It has been a great camera for me and I have completely switched to digital now, since I know I can rely on this camera to take great pictures!

Stormy Sunset...

Another night of storms, left us with some amazing sunset clouds...


The back edge of the storm as the sun sets.

Huge Lightning Storm...

We had an amazing storm come over tonight...

I had a chance to play around my my settings on my camera. I think the outcome was nothing less than spectacular! I can not believe I got these photos! The sky was like a strob light and many photos turned out completely white from the flashes lighting up the entire sky. One strike hit so close all the power went out. There was a hush that made my skin crawl.

Game Fair Fun...

We headed out to the Game Fair in Ramsey, MN
with our 11 month old black lab, Maddie. It was
really hot out there, 94 degrees, but we found a great way to
keep Maddie cool...and me too!

Maddie fetched a dummie out in the lake several times. She did great, since she had never done that before and has not been to training classes yet even! She was better behaved than many of the older dogs there!

She also went off the dock after a dummie, and seemed to love that as well! We hosed her off, but that didn't keep her clean since she just wanted to roll in the dirt or go lay down in the lake!

I ended up with a shower too, after Maddie shook off right next to me. We all had a great time!

The kids got to practice their shooting skills too!

A Beginning...

I just started my cousins wedding album. I decided to go digital and then add some embellishments once they are printed out. Here is the first page....

What do you think?

Fresh....YUMMMMY....

Our finds at the Farmers Market

were so yummy and refreshing!

Sweet Corn
Spinach
Tomato
Red Potatos
Clemintines
Carrots
Watermelon

and....Glads!

Beach Bound...

We visited a new "manmade beach" this week.

The weather was HOT HOT HOT! and we were looking for relief!

The kids played in the sand, digging a huge hole and filling it with water.


Me...I sat under the big umbrella keeping cool!

National Night Out...

Here in Brooklyn Park, MN, National Night Out is a big deal! We are ranked #10 in our population group and Minnesota is tied with Texas for 1st place for overall states.

We went to the main celebration this year and enjoyed free cotton candy, ice cream cones, popcorn, sodas, petting zoo, pony rides and a penny carnival. Plus, we got to visit with fire fighters and police and tour through their trucks.

They the whole area was lite up with fire truck lights and sirens and fireworks began. It was great fun!

Spin Art

Celebrating National Night Out!

Us with Spud (Brooklyn Park Tatter Days Mascot)

Shocked...

As many... I am shocked at the bridge collapse in Minneapolis. Especially since this is a bridge I travel frequently.

It is always somewhere else in the world, not in your own home town that this happens.

As soon as I heard, I ran a list of people I know that may be in that area for some reason or another. For me, it was a lucky day, but for so many others, today is a terrible personal tragedy. I can only offer my prayers for the families of the missing and dead and send thanks to God for the ones who survived this unbelieveable accident. (photo by unknown, posted on WCCO.com)

Please send prayers to Minnesota...there are lots of people that need them!

Oh...My Aching Back...

I have had problems with my back for a few years now and I had been going to a chiropractor for a while about a year ago. I didn't notice much of any difference from going to her, so I just stopped. She never explained what was going on or what she was doing and I felt very uncomfortable around her and her staff.

I went to Maple Grove Days business expo and met a chiropractor who was giving massages while I was there. I mentioned my back issues that I have been plagued with and he checked out my back. He said he could see why my back would be so sore. I also pointed out how curved my daughters back was and he appeared more concerned about it than I had even been.

So we had our first appointment and he did X-Rays on my back and found the problems with my back. My back does not curve down toward my tail bone, but comes in at a sharp angle and then outward, not curving down. This makes my butt stick out more...here I thought it was just how I was built! My disks in that area are deterierating and bones starting to rub on each other. I also have a small fracture in the vertibrae above this point. One of my hips is about an inch lower than the other and my left leg has lost most of its strength because of this.

We came up with a treatment plan to help out and he warned me he adjusts agressively because he wants his patients to feel better quicker, not drag it out.

I have made it through the first week and into my second week now. The first week was good and bad! My back felt better, but my muscles were screaming at me! The pains started going up my back to higher areas. He said this is good...we have to readjust my whole spin from the bottom up because it has been out of whack for so long.

Today is the first day I feel GOOD! My muscles are starting to calm down and I can tell my back is straightening out more. It will be a while before others notice it as much as I do, but my behind doesn't stick out as much as it was and I can feel and see it in the way my pants fit!

So onward I go...getting straightened out!

Free Flight...

This beautiful butterfly took a free flight through our

garden this afternoon...

She enjoyed the bright flowers and the warm summer breeze!

Nature's Awesome Power...

We were visiting our friends the day after 4th of July about 10 miles north of our house. It started getting dark so we headed outside to checkout the weather. I caught this amazing wall cloud coming toward the house.

Good thing it missed their house, because the area where the storm cloud hit, there were trees down and power outages.

I also snapped a couple pictures of the clouds above us because of the spinning action they were showing.



The clouds were spinning above us...


and then the sky had stripes....

Summer Treat!

It's HOT! Really HOT!

So we gave our babies a yummy summer treat to

cool them off a bit...

Leftover Melon Rhines...

and it seems Maddie, Whisper and Hailey

all enjoyed them!

Baby Maddie

Teen Whisper

Old Lady Hailey

Ghost Hunter? I think NOT!

I have always been facinated with ghosts, even when I was 1 1/2 years old, my Mom has a picture I drew of ghosts. Why I was drawing ghosts at 1 1/2 is beyond me!



I have several stories of my own from over the years and I always thought it would be fun to be a ghost hunter. I love watching Ghost Hunters on Sci Fi Channel and Most Haunted on the Travel Channel (they just scream a lot on this show! but I like the history of it) I started watching A Haunting recently and realized I wouldn't be a very good ghost hunter! I would hear a little bump and I would be the one running the other direction!

I will post some of my ghost stories in the near future. Until then, I will watch on the sidelines and not go looking for ghosts!

Scrapper's Block...GOODBYE!

I finally got inspired to scrapbook again. It has been since January that I last scrapbooked. It felt great to get thoughts down onto paper again, so here is what I came up with. I did my two page layout and then used the scraps to make a tin and a greeting card as well.