Tuesday, November 28, 2006

How Smart Is Your Right Foot?

I received this email... Yeah, I tried it.. I thought I would post it so that the rest of you could too!! :)

This is so funny that it will boggle your mind. And, you will keep trying it at least 50 more times to see if you can outsmart your foot. But you can't!!!

1. While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor!
And make clockwise circles with it.
2. Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your
Right hand.. Your foot will change direction!!!

I told you so.. And there is nothing you can do about it.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Picture Change

OK, so my "work bud" is dabbling in the area of photography and took the below pictures of his daughter in his home. He said he had to prove to his wife that the cost of the camera he bought was justified because they could now take pictures themselves instead of going to a local professional to get them taken. This way, clothing changes are not extra, different poses are not extra, and you don't have to pick just one or two poses! If he didn't live so far away I would hire him to come to my house to take pictures of my kids!

I'm sure it only helps his case that his subject is so beautiful! :) He took several shots, but I only am posting 3 of my favorites.



The one below is one of my favorites because it is so natural, and because I know the story behind why she is laughing! Seems the picture was, um, not a planned one.. her daddy tripped over the tri-pod and accidentally snapped the picture. An excellent picture at that! If that shot doesn't convince his wife, I don't know what would! That a camera would take such a good shot with an "accidental" push of the button... well, I think it speaks for itself! heehee, sorry w-b, I had to tell it! :)
Anyway, to get to the point of this post... w-b liked one of my pictures on my blog so well, that he made a change to it and sent it to me as a black and white picture. I agree - it does look good in black and white, too! I think I like it better in black and white... What do you think?
I am going to have to start posting some really controversial subjects to get people fired up enough to want to comment. Hmmmm... that might be fun. Since I know you all, lets see if I know how to push your buttons...

Thank You, Misty, for commenting on Day 5! :)

By the way...

I already have my next post written.. but I'm not posting it until I know that the Day 5 post has been read by someone... :)

Monday, November 13, 2006

Niagara Falls - Day 5

Our final day of our trip and it was still raining - as it had for most of the trip. Conor and I went down to get some coffee, juice, and a muffin while we were waiting on the others to get ready. We packed the van up and were on our way to Niagara Falls to spend a few hours before starting the drive home. When we got close to the boarder, we started looking for someplace to park. There was construction going on and detours, and it was all pretty confusing, but we finally found a place, paid the $10 parking fee, and got out of the van. There was a huge building that we went through and it was all rather strange feeling - it had a visitor's center, various restaurants and stores, but they were all closed and the building was pretty empty. There was one man in the visitor's center part and when we asked him how far away the falls were he told us it was a 20 minute walk in another direction. Turns out he was wrong - we walked out the door and crossed the road and they were about 5 minutes away.

While walking down a grassy hill, my foot slid forward and I fell on my knees - what fun! :) So the knees of my jeans were caked with mud. Through the mud, rain, and coldness, I still managed to take some pictures. I tried very hard to keep my camera as dry as I could.









There is no one in the above picture that we know, I just took it because of the colorful trees. :)






Conor had a ball - he loved splashing through the water puddles - he was just a blur back and forth in the puddle above. Mom and I were huddled under a small bit of shelter, just wanting a small amount of time without water falling on our heads. I do not mind getting wet (I never use an umbrella), but it just got tiring wiping water out of my eyes. :)

After so long of walking and getting soaked, we got on the trolley to take us back to where our van was parked. Everyone was starving, so we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch.


Conor loved all of the guitars on the walls, he tried to go around and count them all. The girls and I had a hot chocolate to warm us up.

This was the painting on the ceiling of the cafe - an Eagle to represent the USA, and a Beaver to represent Canada since they were on the boarder of the US and Canada.

Conor with his newly achieved wink. ;) We all piled in the van after we ate, the kids changed into their pjs because they were all soaked and it was easy for them to change. The kids cuddled up in the back - took naps and watched movies on the DVD player. We had thought that we would get home around 9ish that evening, but it ended up being more like 10:30. I dropped Jeff and the kids off at home and took my mom home because the girls wanted to get everything ready for school the next day. We had wanted them to only have to miss 3 days, but since we got home so late on Wednesday night, we told them they could sleep in and go 1/2 day or just take the day off. They both wanted to go to school, though, and they got all their things ready and went to bed. Can you imagine? Permission to stay home and they both chose to go... wow, that is dedication. Two really good students, craving knowledge. Awwww... I'm proud of them!

Or, wait a minute.... maybe they were just trying to get away from us - they had their fill of being in our company for 5 1/2 days straight with no break (they didn't have their own rooms to go and hide in). Or, they didn't want to help clean up the van and do laundry from the trip. Hmmmm... I'm still proud of them. :)

OK, that's it! That is all the pictures and stories from our trip! :) I probably forgot to tell some of the stories - but - my memory isn't THAT good. I should have written it down sooner so I wouldn't have to stretch my memory to remember what I did. Because I distinctly remember laughing at something Jeff did or said that he didn't want me to tell anyone... I remember telling him that I was going to put it in my blog and he didn't want me to... but I don't remember what it was. :(

Oh, well. Maybe I will remember at another time, or... and I'm sure this will happen ... Jeff will do something else funny to give me material for my blog. :)

Day 4 - Leaving Vermont

On Tuesday, we were to began our trip back towards Ohio. Before we left the area, we headed back to the lake for a morning walk along the water - Lake Champlain. We had wanted to do this the prior day, but we had done so many other things and everyone was tired, so we just figured we would do it in the morning before we left.


The kids had fun walking along the rocks near the water; they were very careful and the girls assisted Conor from rock to rock when there was a gap bigger than what his legs could handle.
Here's Mom sitting and enjoying the scenery. There were several bench swings along the path.
As you can see by the look on his face, Conor was having lots of fun. :)



Conor wanted to try to pet the birds, so he walked very quietly up to them, but they got away before he reached them.

Of course I made everyone pose for a picture opp on the swings! :) Right after this picture we loaded back into the van to begin the trip to Niagara Falls. Below are some pictures I took of the scenery as we were driving.

The route Jeff chose looked like it had a road to New York, but when we reached the end of Vermont we found that there was no road, but a ferry that takes both passengers and vehicles across the water to the opposite side. It was really cool, the kids were all excited that we got to ride to the other side, and that the van got to go, too. We were also lucky because the ferry only operated during certain times of the year, and they were getting ready to close it down for the winter season.

Above is the car that was coming from New York to Vermont while we waited. We were the first in line to get on the ferry when it came. Below are pictures from onboard the ferry - I do not know why the 2 directly below decided to change formatting and go side-to-side, but with all the problems I have had loading pictures I decided to just leave them.


Above is the line of cars on the ferry - we drove the blue van that is in the front. Below is the dock on Vermont's side that we had just left.

When we got close to the dock, we all piled back into the van to prepare to drive off of the ferry. I had driven the van onto the ferry, and Jeff was driving it off. Funny thing about the van is that the sliding doors in the back will not operate if the vehicle is in drive. What makes that funny (strange) is that when the doors are OPEN and you put the van in drive, they will not CLOSE. Thus the reason we held up all the other people who were trying to exit the ferry - Conor opened the sliding door right before Jeff put the van in drive and we were all trying to close the door but it would not go. We finally got the door closed, and even though only a short time had passed, it felt like forever - the ferry people came to the window to see why we were not driving off. So, when we came to the welcome sign, Jeff did not want to go slow - he didn't want to irritate all the people behind us again, but I managed to get the picture anyway. :)

Below are some pictures I took as we were driving through the Adirondack Mountains in New York.







We stopped for lunch at a McDonald's, because we didn't want to take too much time. We got somewhere near Niagara Falls and it was close to 6:30 PM so we decided to stop and get hotel rooms for the night and go to the falls the next morning. We checked in and got the van unloaded and since everyone was hungry, they decided to walk to the nearby Bob Evans and get dinner. I chose to just stay in the hotel room and Jeff brought me back some food. We all went to bed relatively early to get a good nights sleep for our final day of Niagara Falls and the trip home.