Bloggy give away

And the give away has ended.... The lucky number is...



And that makes the winner One Ordinary Mom

I am sorry I don't have enough copies to make everyone a winner :-( but maybe if you swing by the photoshop section or photo section you can pick up a few things there all free :-)



Given my interest in photography I want to give away something that can be useful to just about anyone wanting to improve their photos or just try something new.

So without further ado... here is my give away for fall.

The book "Digital photography - All you need to know". The all you need to know part may be a slight exaggeration but it is pretty helpful from capturing your images (composition, light) to processing your photos easy with various effects.



Just leave a comment and you are in the drawing :-)

Of course if you check out my other blogs (links in the right side bar) you are welcome to subscribe and follow all of them if you want to ;-)

ohh and ps. if you have a blog where I can reach you it's not needed to add your email address. Unless of course you want to ;-)

End of the weekend :-(

So it's Sunday night and the end of the weekend.

Saturday it was raining and Sunday we got a little shopping done. Amongst all of it there was a few funny moments. And yeah Emma was the source of them ;-) As some of you may know (yeah not really a big secret) I do a bit of photography. And I just printed a few of the two kiddos on canvas to try something new and different. So as Emma was standing there looking at it I asked "sooo should we sell it?". Kids have a sometimes different view so being asked that question Emma started laughing and once done "nooo we can't sell the picture" quickly followed by "you can't sell pictures... that's silly..." hmm yeah okei... moving on... As we were going through Kohls shopping Emma was quite full of energy (hmm). So as I am sure many parents have tried she was getting "the look"... Emma tilted her head and commented with a "and what's that look for???" She also got a new word. Not that she really understands it but it does seem to hit the spot a certain times. Such as when I want her to do something and she puts her hand on the hip and does that girls head tilting thing saying "let's compromise..." I'm thinking come on now... you are 4 years old... ahh well. As I mentioned it was raining Saturday so we did watch a couple of movies. One of them (repeated a couple of times) was Winnie the Pooh. I know it may be slightly strange but I came to thinking. If I was a pooh character which would I be... I think it would probably be Rabbit. You know there has to be a plan for everything to be followed strictly (not that that ever happens... but still). How about you? If you were a Pooh character which would you be?

Vovici Online Survey Software

ohh yeah here is one of the shots from the impromptu studio session with the kiddos ;-)



Have a great start on the week everyone :-)

Guess a season

Here is a really tough one....

Guess a season



Happy Halloween everyone...

Stony man mountain - revisited

It may be raining but it's finally the weekend. Soo I got a chances to put up a few photos from a small trip to Stony man mountain in the Shenandoah.

Last time I had a few hiccups so now was my chance to fix those and see how far fall has progressed in the mountains.

Stony man mountain is pretty good because there is a great view and the walk up there is "just" about 1 1/2 mile or so (compared to the Overall run falls) that's really not much to speak of :-)

Getting to the top of the mountain takes you through the woods and if you use your ears and eyes (I can't believe how many people zooms through and see absolutely nothing) you will see deers, squirrels, birds and chipmunks. And with a little imagination the trees can form a lot of interesting shapes too :-)

Here the photos start off going up the trail to the mountain top.



Getting to the top of Stony man mountain there is a great view of skyline drive and the Shenandoah valley. The view of skyline drive from this position is also what is featured on the front of the map of skyline drive.



Just as I started heading back some clouds covered the sun and the sun rays were kind of special. So I managed to get a few shots and the head on back. This time I knew I was in good time and the walk back to the truck was down hill so :-) much better than the last adventure.



On my walk back I was looking for the little things hiding here and there. I found a "snake" on my way... see if you can spot that one :-)
And well I got some nice fall impressions and small wild flowers growing here and there.
There is just something special about the afternoon light falling on different subjects. It adds that golden glow :-)



Ohh yeah and I did meet one of the local residents. First time that has happened and I only had a short amount of time to pull out the camera so not the most steady shot I got ;-)



While being on the top of the mountain I got another panorama made. I am a little behind on the stitching of those but here is one to show off the view.



Ohh yeah and check out the other trips too:
Shenandoah - Overall run falls
Shenandoah - Stony man mountain in march

Halloween

This is just too funny...

Halloween is gonna suck this year

Zyrtec and medicating kids

Soo last week I heard on the radio about parents and grand parents using NyQuil to "calm" kids down and create some adult quit time...

yeah... don't get me started on that one but... gggg does the government really have to put something like that on prescription to avoid parents doing something that stupid!!!!!

But back to the point with this post. A co worker of mine has had a not so pleasant time with her son. Meaning screaming from waking up till going to bed (late) and basically being like a nightmare son out of... you know.

Well guess what. That was all caused by Zyrtec. ohhh yeah go ahead and check the official site for more info.

I know Zyrtec isn't an official drowsing drug like NyQuil but the side effects (well the ones mentioned) are: Drowsiness, dry mouth, stomach pain (in children), tiredness, trouble sleeping (in children).

The trouble with this one is well as described "Zyrtec is an antihistamine that reduces the natural chemical histamine in the body...Zyrtec is used to prevent or treat symptoms of hay fever and to treat cold or allergy symptoms such as sneezing, itching, watery eyes, or runny nose."

The part about it being used as a preventive against runny nose, cold and everything fall related basically means that some kids are on this all the time.

soo if it does all that what's the problem?? a little dry mouth and drowsiness can't be that bad...
Well as described on this page: "Zyrtec can cause side effects that may impair your thinking or reactions.". Not that it should scare you off but it can also cause Insomnia, anxiety, low blood pressure and blurred vision (to name a few) according to this page.

Unofficially all this is caused by a balance nerve being affected (more common than anyone in the medical industry will tell you) and this leads to the blurred vision. Due to some jam up of the nerve it basically gives you the anxiety due to some build up in the brain.

Now in adults well most adults can react to the symptoms and say this is making my heart beat like running a marathon, maybe I shouldn't take it. But in kids getting the diagnose that they shouldn't take it can be difficult.

And that is where it really gets me as a parent. Most people will feed their kids the medication and all of a sudden they start "acting up"... so back to the doctor and guess what they probably got ADHD and have a hard time paying attention... Great news we got this new drug... (need I go no further...)

Just think that some kids are fed medication giving them a 24/7 anxiety attack... yeah I think I would be a little ADHD too. One could wonder where ADHD as a diagnose was coming from... hmm...