From Colorado...

Hi there. This is Meredith, and I'm posting for Leah because the place she's staying in Colorado doesn't have internet access *gasp*! She wanted you to know that they're having a great time, enjoying some chilly weather, and that she'll post as soon as she has access to the internet again. So stay tuned...

Hairscapade!

As I've mentioned in recent posts, my family and I are on a vacation/sabbatical. During this week my hubby is studying in a nearby seminary; the kiddos and I are enjoying time with the grandparents.

One of the items on our agenda for this week was for my mom to highlight my hair. My mom was trained in the art of hair design (is that proper terminology?), and before getting married made a living using this art. There are great advantages to having a cosmetologist for a mom. When I was growing up, my siblings and I had her expertise at our disposal (I'm sure it saved our family lots of money). When I moved away to college, I was glad that on breaks and holidays, my mom could do my hair. I avoided paying someone to do it as long as possible. Then, the inevitable happened: I moved away to be a "big girl." Since I didn't see my parents as often, I was forced to find (and pay) a hairdresser. But whenever I plan to see my mom for any length of time, I ask her to do my hair.

After the birth of my first child (I was 30), my hair started getting darker. So, my mom started highlighting my hair. She has been doing it for me whenever we have been together for the past six years. She has always done a great job.

This time, we ran into a little problem. My hair is cut much shorter than the last time we did this so foiling it is more difficult. I told her to just bleach all of the bottom layer instead of highlighting it thinking this would make it easier to do. Big mistake! As you can see in this picture, it was too bleached!


Not only was this part of my hair a totally different color than the rest, it was a bright yellow...very unnatural looking. Nobody freaked out. We just laughed about it, because we knew it could be fixed. After consulting the stylist who does my mom's hair, we recolored the unsightly portion and it's good as new!


Have I ever mentioned that our family motto is "never a dull moment"?

Self Portraits Courtesy Photoshop Elements

I recently wrote a post about doctoring photos of myself. It allows me to live in denial...you know, deny my age, my wrinkles, my extra pounds?

So now that I have that out in the open, I've had a lot of fun learning how to use my photoshop elements. I am spending some of our time away from home reading manuals and tutorials on photography and photoshop. Today was a quiet day here at my parents' house and I spent a good bit of it reading and experimenting.

Just for fun, I'm going to show you some of the results.

Let's start with the reality:


There's nothing like a close-up to show all the flaws, is there? You'd better be glad I have on make-up. The non-make-up reality is even worse!

Then, I catered to my denial by making a few changes. Here I brightened the eyes and got rid of a few wrinkles. I sure do wish it was that easy to do that in real life!



Next, I learned how to change a picture into sepia tone. This picture has been changed to sepia leaving the eyes in color. I was so excited that I was actually able to accomplish this. It's amazing what you can do when you have some instructions to follow!


This blog was started as a way to keep in touch with family and friends who don't live near me. So just in case any of those people couldn't care less about my dabbling in photography and photoshop, I've started another little blog just for that. If this is something you might be interested in, just click on over. Otherwise, rest assured that I won't continue to bore you with my hobby.

Mom's Cookin'

Have you ever noticed that when someone else does the cooking, it tastes so much better than yours? That's the truth in my case. I don't know if that just means I'm not a good cook or if things taste better when you're not too tired from cooking to enjoy it!

Either way, food tastes even better when its cooked by your Mama! And boy am I enjoying my Mom's cooking! We have been at my parents' home in Missouri since Monday, and she has been fattening us up!

So in honor of Mom, I've posted the recipes for some of the food we've been eating. You can find them on my recipe blog: family favorite recipes. While there, you'll find recipes for
Raspberry Walnut Cake,
Fruited Spinach Salad,
Summer Vegetables with Parsley Sauce,
Chicken Casserole,
and Orange Glazed Roast Pork with Raisin Rice

Enjoy these yummy recipes and while you are eating, thank God for your mom and for Mom's cookin'.


P.S. Connie, if you are reading this: you are not allowed to use any of these recipes until after I have :) and next co-op planning luncheon is at my house!

Reality Bites!

You may have noticed that I changed my profile picture. And you probably are very aware that it is a "doctored" picture. My hubby gave me photoshop elements for Valentines Day and I have lots of fun trying to figure out how to use it.

I've been wanting to change my profile picture for a while, but I hate pictures of myself. So here's how it works: I take thousands of self portraits, delete them all, take thousands more and repeat until I find one that I think I can live with. Then I get on photoshop and doctor it until I think I look half way decent. Now I know, I need to be real and not be pretentious...etc, etc.

But come on...humor me. Can I please pretend to be younger than I am? Can I just tell myself that I don't weigh thirty pounds more than I used to? I like living in denial (After all, reality bites). It doesn't bother me one bit that I lie to myself about my puffy eyes, blemishes and wrinkles. So when I use photoshop to help me live in denial, you won't judge me will you? Just pretend right along with me that I'm still the young, firm-skinned youth I once was. What's that you say? I don't look one bit different than I did 15 years ago? Bless you, my sister. You just became my new best friend.

Here is the original picture (it's reality):

This is the doctored, more flattering version (it's the version based on denial):

And, just for fun......here I am about 15 years ago:

Here's The Plan:

View Larger Map


And that's not all. Half the trip has definite plans, the rest depends on what we feel like. We are excited to go on an adventure...I'll keep you posted!

Sabbatical -

1. of or pertaining or appropriate to the Sabbath.
2. of or pertaining to a sabbatical year.
3. bringing a period of rest.
4. any extended period of leave from one's customary work, esp. for rest, to acquire new skills or training, etc.

"sabbatical." Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. 08 Apr. 2008

5. a blessing that our church bestows upon its pastors every four years.
6. a paid month of leave for the purpose of renewal, study, personal growth.
7. something given to my hubby that we all get to participate in.
8. a time period that begins next week and involves a long trip away from home.
9. no housework for mom.
10. visit with Grandma and Grandpa.
11. seeing old friends.
12. more Rocky Mountain adventures!


While this is very exciting, there's a lot of work to prepare for this trip. I'm not sure I even know what all I need to do. I've never been gone this length of time before. Does anyone have any helpful tips for preparing to leave my house for a month?

This Morning

This was the view from our back porch early this morning:


And looking the other way:


This was our daughter a few minutes later when the storm hit and the thunder got really loud. She was too tired to get out of bed, but the thunder kept waking her up! I guess this was the only way she could get a few more winks!


These photos look blurry, because I uploaded them from the web (flickr). I am trying to figure out how to do this and am clueless. How do you do photos? Do you just upload from your computer or from someplace on the web? Help me, please. I need "blogging for dummies" help!

A Project

I should have been doing this:

Why is it that I'm always looking for something besides housework to do? Maybe it's because I get tired of doing the same things over and over! (my apologies to those readers who cringe at the sight of this mess (April & Mer))


Since, on some days, I will do almost anything to avoid the mundane and routine, I decided to work on this:

This is a leg of our dining room table. When Joel's grandmother passed away a couple of years ago, this table and hutch set of hers was passed to us. It is very worn and damaged by its years of use. I don't have the energy or skills to refinish it. Nor do I have the budget to hire out the job. So I did the next best thing.


I used Old English Scratch Remover. I love this stuff! It's no magic potion, but it sure makes damaged furniture look better. Granted, this table has some pretty extensive damage to its finish and this did not solve the problem. But, it made it helped minimize the contrast between the finish and the wood underneath.

Here are the legs after I gave them a good coat of Old English. Isn't this a beautiful table? (Try to ignore the computer on it...my hubby is reprogramming it for use at the church). It looks like I should have been dusting and mopping the floor, too...another mundane and routine task....

Think He's Played Hard Today?

(please disregard his mismatched pjs)