Picture Gallery

As promised (from recently and back several weeks) pictures. Some of these are from my "Picture A Day" goal to document more normal, everyday life, and others from my photography class assignments. ENJOY!

1/27/09 - The Sweet Tooth Fairy opened up shop in Provo and boy do they have rich treats! This is an Oreo cupcake, Reese's Peanut Butter cup cupcake, and two "cake bites". They were really rich but yummy!

1/30/09 - This is how far my knee bends and that is almost back to normal. Luckily I'm on the downhill slide of the recovery and just need to keep getting stronger.
2/10/09 - My first assignment, using long and short shutter openings. This is a long opening so you see the clouds moving across the moon.
2/13/09 - Brian and I got the opportunity to go to the Utah County Lincoln Day Dinner for the Republican party. The food was pretty good but the display on my plate looked even better!
2/14/09 - For Valentine's Day dinner we made a "lasagna" in a heart shaped dish. It was really fun to cook such a yummy meal together...I love my amazing chef!
2/17/09 - Second assignment working with Aperture. This first one you can see the details all the way back to the wall.
This one you see the heart in main focus and then everything else is softer or more blurred background.

Pictureless Recap...my apologies!

I'm always trying to think of fun things to blog about but I just don't seem to think my life is all that interesting most of the time. But since I like keeping this more for a journal, this post is just going to be an update of the past 2 weeks.

First off, I have had 2 photography classes so far and I have learned so much. I just hope I can retain all the information we are taught. Luckily we are given small assignments to take a few pictures each week using what we learn and the class votes on the best ones the next week. I find it hard to think of something "cool" or creative to take pictures of playing with different settings on the camera but it's a good way for me to put into practice what I learn so it will help me remember it later on (hopefully)! I will try to post some of my recent practice pictures later.

Secondly, our Valentine's/3-day weekend was pretty relaxing but productive. Brian's dad had a conference in Provo so he was going to be up for a few days so we planned to spend time with him and go to Ogden to visit Grandpa Chapman. At the last minute it was canceled so we didn't have any plans and decided we could get things done around the house. My Valentine's day present to Brian was me cleaning the house. Usually he cleans the bathroom and I clean most everything else but since I knew how much he did not want to clean the bathroom this time I just started cleaning the house while he was at meetings Saturday morning. Unfortunately he got home before I was done so after a break for lunch, he vacuumed the upstairs rooms and I cleaned the bathroom and finished the rest of the house. I think he was pretty appreciative. Then for dinner he made me one of my favorite dishes...Lasagna...except he uses other noodles but it's authentic Italian food and I love it so much! We even made it in a heart shaped dish...so fun!! Pictures to come later...

Also, I was able to visit some former roommates two weekends ago. I went to a bridal shower and saw 2 sisters, Heather and Diane, and then I stopped to visit my friend, Linsey, on the way home. I hadn't seen Linsey since before she had her baby...6 months ago! It was fun to see her and her 2 boys and just sit and chat. I wish I was better at visiting friends and staying in touch because I always have fun when I do see them. Can I still make new year's resolutions this far into the year?? Maybe I won't though so there's one less to break...

On a final note, I can't wait for our trip to San Diego in March. I need warmer weather, fun adventures, and to see family (especially neices and nephews). Ever since my sister moved to Idaho over a year ago I don't have any neices and nephews around so I miss seeing them whenever I wanted. So I'll take the warm weather and Brian's family all in one trip! It's just over 2 weeks away so hopefully it will come fast and the vacation will go by SLOW!! Anyway, sorry for the pictureless, long recap of the past 2 weeks but I promise I'll update with pictures soon!

Thumbs Up!!

So, the surgeon seemed very pleased with my progress since my last appointment. After straightening, bending, flexing my quad, etc. he said I'm really close to having full range of motion back! He told me that the knee brace was optional at this point so I haven't worn it once since that appointment!!! It's a whole new world for me since I've been in a knee brace since October...that's 4 months...it was a great accessory to my wardrobe for a while but I'm glad to have given it up. Now I get to just show off my scars.

Yesterday at Physical Therapy, the therapist said he thinks my knee is back to being straight. He gave me a new exercise to do starting next week, hamstring curls...those will be difficult. I have been able to tell doing certain things that my hamstring just doesn't have much muscle to it right now. It's getting better but it needs some improvement. For my picture-a-day I took a picture of my knee bent as far as it will go right now. Hopefully I will be able to add that picture later when I am on the right computer with the pictures. My photography class starts tomorrow night and I can't wait!! I'll let you know how it goes...

A Picture A Day

I made a goal less than 2 weeks ago that I wanted to take more pictures and I've heard of people taking a picture every day for a year. I thought that would be fun to help document some of the every day things in my life instead of only the big events. So I started off on my adventure having fun and a few days later...I missed a day. Well, so far I've missed 2 days I think so maybe I should just make my goal to take pictures more often and then I won't feel bad about missing a few days! For Christmas, Brian signed me up for a photography class through UVU and it finally starts this week!!! I can't wait to learn new things. I just hope I can retain all the information and take better pictures. Not that my pictures are usually bad but I want to be able to learn how to do things more manually and not just use the automatic settings. My camera has functions that don't get used because I just don't quite know the best way to use them. So, hopefully by the middle of March I will have learned many knew and cool things about photography! (I just hope I don't get bored in the "classroom"...it's been a while since I've been in school!)