Bo Staff Class

On Saturday, we signed Michael up for an extra class for Taekwondo.  Every once in a while they will offer a weapons class, and this one was for the bo staff ("Jang bong" which is Korean for long stick).  Since they would be able to take the bo staff home, we knew Michael would love it.  We weren't wrong.

He did love it, and he has been practicing at home.  He isn't too bad! 

This week, there is only one class, since the instructors are heading to Las Vegas for various degrees of black belt testing.  So probably won't be any pictures.  I know, I know, how will you ever survive??  I am thinking I won't bore you with anymore until he gets his white belt!  Should be a proud moment for all of us!

The Joy of Love, Day 27

Theme: What They Say

This is something very important in our family.  We make sure we say "I love you" each and every morning before we part ways.  Even if my husband and I are in the middle of a disagreement, and not feeling like talking much to each other, we still make sure it is said.

The Joy of Love, Day 26

Theme:  Bromance

My hubby has a few close buddies, not just one, so I don't want to single any one of them out.  But I did notice that willette gave an idea of "with his dog", and a picture immediately came to mind.

We used to have a Saint Bernard, and my husband absoutely loved that dog!  I have proof!

I often joked with Mike that he showed more affection towards the dog sometimes than he did with me!  In this picture, he was actually trying to keep Hercules distracted, while our son used him as a jungle gym.  But I would say they definitely had a bromance!

Taekwondo, the 2nd week

I promise I won't post a picture from class every week!  But I did like one picture from his class this week, that I wanted to share.

Look at the height on that kick!  So proud!

He is taking an extra class this weekend, to learn the bo staff.  I probably WILL have pictures from that!

The Joy of Love, Day 25

Theme:  When You Love Them The Most

This was so hard.  As I start this post, I have no idea what picture to use.  I mean, my husband does so many little things for me, and for our family.  Right now, he has been doing even more than normal, since his work is not quite in full swing, unless we have heavy snowfall.  So he is home a bit more than usual.  He has been doing lots of dishes, cooking, tidying, and even laundry!  He takes and picks up the kids from preschool/daycare, and plays with the kids when they are home.  And he also does the usual "guy" things too, like trash, snow blowing (mowing in the summer), household repairs, and so on.  So what the heck do I take a picture of? 

What I really want to take a picture of, is the little note that I found one morning.  It said, "I Love You.  Have a Great Day.  Love Me and Michael."  Michael wrote his own name on the note too.  But darn it.  That note is taped securely to my computer monitor at work, and I won't be back at the office now until Monday.  I don't want to wait until then to finish this post!

Then there was the Valentine's Day card.  I took a great amount of time picking just the right one out for him.  It was one of those long mushy cards, that proclaimed my love, and explained how much I appreciated having him in my life.  His card to me?  It was a humorous one, and said something about sex.  Dang it.  I wish I would have saved it.  Because I do love him the most when he makes me laugh.

So what picture?  Oh!  I think there is another note somewhere.  Yep.  Found it!

There have been many like this, and I didn't save them all.  But I remember finding this one in my car, on the seat, one morning before I went to work.  I keep it with my wedding planning stuff.  This is when I really love him.  When he randomly does sweet things like this!

The Joy of Love, Day 24

Theme: Where

This is where Mike and I first met.  I was moving in, into the apartment shown here on the right (1914), and Mike came up to me and introduced himself, and he was living in the apartment to the left ((1912).  I was smitten immediately.  I am not sure if it was love at first sight, but I was definitely ga-ga.  Ok, let's be honest.  I instantly knew I would marry him one day, and now look at us!  Married with two children!

I couldn't revisit our old stomping grounds without including these:

One of the ways I tried to break the ice, to get conversation going between the two of us, was when I asked him to check my mail.  I was going on vacation for 5 days, and didn't want my mail piling up.  We did have a chat when I returned, but it wasn't until much later that we actually started to date.

I thought I had blogged about how we met before, so maybe I will look that up and post a link.  Maybe.

Gosh, it was weird going back there to get these photos.  Weird, but at the same time, a nice trip down memory lane!

The Joy of Love, Day 23

Theme: favorite facebook picture

Boy, was this tough!  I post quite a few pictures on facebook, so it was hard to narrow it down.  So I decided to limit my choices to cell phone pictures only.  That made it much easier, but I still couldn't narrow it down to one.  So here are two.

This was taken while we were waiting for the 4th of July fireworks to start last year.  She was so full of smiles that day!  She managed to stay awake until just before the fireworks started.  Of course!

I was so happy to have this picture!  On this day, we went to the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo, and I forgot my camera!  I had to resort to taking pictures with my cell phone, and this was my favorite from the day!  He did keep the paint on until we got back home, and I took some more pictures with my real camera, but I still like this one!

The Joy of Love, Day 22

Theme: Portrait

In this photo, it was shot in full manual, and she was facing the back sliding glass door.   The focus could have been crisper on her eyes, but when you have a fast moving subject, that is a big challenge!

The Joy of Love, Day 21

Theme:  Hands

Here is Little Miss having some chocolate graham goldfish.  "We love fishes 'cause their soooo delicious!"

I went with a type of macro shot instead of a cool depth of field.

The Joy of Love, Day 20

Theme:  "When They're Home"

See Day 19 post above.  Just kidding!  Although it does fit!  But I will share a different photo today.

These two really love each other!  When they are home, Allison follows Michael around, she plays with his toys, Michael yells at Allie to stop playing with his toys, then they run around the room, giggle, and then Allison cries because she fell down.  Repeat.

The Joy of Love, Day 19

Theme: "When They're Gone"

When are they gone?  That doesn't happen very often!  But today, they were outside playing, and that is the closest I get these days to them being gone!  Here is the scene:

Toys scattered around, sippy cup abandoned, lights left on, jackets not put away, stuff accumulating on the countertop.  Ok, so it doesn't look any different from when they are here!  Ha ha!  But I did take advantage of the quiet house to tidy up a bit after I took this picture.  Not sure why I bothered though, because it looked even worse later!

Wondering about the heart outline?  Well, I won a great prize from Carla's Candids when she was doing a giveaway, called Bokeh Masters Kit.  I first put it on my kit lens to get this look.  Then I put it on my 50mm lens, and played around with it, the right way!  Here is one of my experiments with these cool new discs.  This was a single candle flame

And my wrinkled old lady hand. 

I can't wait to play around with these some more.  Thanks, Carla, for hosting this awesome giveaway!

The Joy of Love, Day 18

Today's theme:  Going out.  She suggested having someone else take the photo for you, while out.  Well, we did have someone else take the picture of us, but it was before we went out.  Our son was the photographer!

Once again, this was not a picture taken specifically for this class.  Well, this was the last time the hubs and I have "gone out" without the kids.  You can see by the Christmas tree in the photo that this was around the holidays.  We were heading out to our friends' Christmas party, two months ago.  Yep, time for a date night!

*note: Mike did come out and have lunch with me on Valentine's Day.  So I guess that was the last time we were out without the kids. Not sure if that counts or not.  I suppose we could have had someone take our picture then, but I didn't know about this theme at the time!

The Joy of Love, Day 17

Today's theme is "Staying in"

This is our typical Friday night: Pizza and a movie night!

It's the only time our kids are allowed to eat in the family room.  As you can see, we even wheel Allie's high chair in there!  Tonight's feature was "Titan A.E."  It was definitely for older kids, and MJ only watched it during his meal, then he went to this:

And Allison rolled around on the floor, completely uninterested in the movie at all, like this:

While Mike and I actually became interested in the movie, and wanted to know how it ended, so we watched it until the very end.  Yep, a typical night "in" for us!

The Joy of Love, Day 16

The theme for today is "together (self-portrait)"

One night, right before Christmas, I decided to set up my tripod and try to get a low light, dreamy self-portrait for my blog profile.  Allison was in bed, and Michael was almost ready for bed.  (It is usually at this time that I do my photography stuff, or whatever other household stuff needs to get done)  So I was going through the routine of pushing the timer button on my camera, then running over to the couch, striking a pose, and waiting for the shutter to go off.  I had taken about 5 pictures in this manner, when Michael came down to give me his nightly hug and kiss goodnight.  He saw my set up, caught me during one of my push the button and run sequences, and he wanted to join in.  I guess it looked pretty fun to him!  After about a dozen goofy and funny face pictures, we decided to do a "nice" one, and this was the result.  I don't care for how I look, of course.  But I still love this picture, and I remember the fun we had before getting to this point.

I didn't end up liking any of the pictures of just myself.  I liked the idea, but somehow couldn't get the look I wanted.  They all looked too cheesy.  Oh well.

Taekwondo, Day 1

Last night was Michael's first Taekwondo class.  I attempted to get some pictures of him before we left, and this is what I ended up with.

All in all, I feel that the class went really well.  But I must say we were all a bit overwhelmed with it.  There were so many people there when we arrived, and we weren't sure what we were doing.  I know as parents we were nervous, so I can't imagine what Michael was feeling! 

His class is the type of class where you just start any day, and you jump in with everyone else, with people that may have been doing it for quite some time, and they are of all ages.   He was very unsure about what he was doing, but he just watched everyone, and mimicked their movements.  At certain times during the class, they did pull the beginners aside, and worked with them a bit more individually.

Taking a knee and listening to the instructor

Trying some moves

Waiting his turn to do some punches on the bag ("Mommy, you still there?")

Working the bag

Push ups - they had to do these in between working on the bag, before getting in line again.

He was a little discouraged at the end of class, because he didn't think he did well.  But we assured him he did great for his first day, and he just needed to keep with it and practice.  I think he was expecting a belt and was disappointed to walk away empty-handed.  He doesn't quite understand that part yet.  I am looking forward to the next class, and I hope he is too!

Another day of fun in the snow!

The weather is getting a bit warmer, and all of the snow we received a couple weeks ago is starting to melt.  Last weekend, the temps were in the 30's and the sun was shining, so we packed up the kids and went sledding!  Who knows how much longer the snow will last?  I mean, according to the groundhog, we are going to have an early spring, right?  So we knew we needed to get out while it was still there to enjoy!

We usually go to our local park, where there are a couple of different hill options, and then hit the playground.  So here are a few shots from our super fun day!

We are hoping to get out ice skating one more time, because Mommy and Allison didn't go last time.  So maybe old man winter can hang out just a little bit longer???

The Joy of Love, Day 15

Theme:  Kiss.  Self-portrait smooching.

Ok, I didn't take this picture today.  I feel like I am getting lazy, but I don't want to get behind either.  And I like this picture.  So, for now, this is it for today.  I may try a new one, and post later.

This was June of last year.  I was mainly just trying to get a selfie of Miss Allie and myself, and I captured this.  She may have been trying to eat my face, but I call it a kiss!

Here are some more of my favorite smooches, but they were not self portraits, and they are not recent.

When Allison was just a few weeks old

 

Valentine's Day last year

 

Fall, last year.  The boy loves to give his sister kisses! (unprompted, too!)

Our dear friends' wedding, September 2008

 

One of our engagement photos, late summer 2004.  I would love to try to re-create this photo!

I hope everyone hade a great Valentine's Day!

The Joy of Love, Day 14

Wedding band/Jewelry

This is baby girl's cross necklace.  She can't quite wear it yet, but we are keeping it safe for her for when she can.  It was a gift from her Grandma and Grandpa K, at her baptism last August, and the silver case is from her godmother.  I took this picture that day, so it was before I was taking any online lessons on photography.  I am going to have to try to get a better picture of this!