Living

What better way to start your day than to blog with a good cup of coffee in your hand!  The company above sells micro-roasted coffee shipped directly from roasters.  They also sell a variety of equipment and accessories for all of us coffee lovers!

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Check them out, I think you'll like them.


So with a great cup of coffee in my hand, I try to start my day by journaling.  It's a great way to record what I've done, where I've been, and what I've been thinking and feeling.  And with all this new technology allowing us to blog, well, wow!  How fun!

Have you ever heard the phrase, "Jack of all trades, master of none"?  Well, I like to think that's an apt description for our family.  Our talents and activities run a gamut of skills which often invite how-to questions from others.

Life is a fascinating journey, taking us to interesting places.   This blog therefore is basically an intimate look into our activities and travels.  Some of our experiences may be useful or educational to others, so please browse the topics for info.  Plus I have written about specific topics that seem to elicit questions.  We love to share!

Cameras Nowadays

Photography used to be simple.  Well, sort of.

There were a lot of things to learn like film speed, lighting, apperature, etc. 
And It was fun printing your own black and white photos.

But today???  Sheesh.  My 15-year old son thinks black and white is SO BORING.  *rolling my eyes*  Even Ansel Adams photos he says are boring.

Okay, but here's the quandry I'm in.  I would like to take photos of my son on the ice (he plays hockey).  It used to be that you just set the settings to capture the movement either as a sharp image or as a blurred image -- photographer's choice.  Now you have to find a camera (digital, of COURSE) that will even snap the image WHEN you want the image.

In other words, today, you have to snap the camera BEFORE you want the image.  Like if I want to take a photo of my son making his goal, and NOT a photo of him skating away after the goal has already been made.  *grrrr*

So I found out that you have to buy a digital camera that can actually record a photo at the moment you press the button.

And they're super pricey, like they're for professional photographers or something.  That kind of pricey.  So I've been shopping around for a place to get a digital camera that does everything that my film 35mm does.  I've found a place with Canon cameras that seems to have a pretty good variety of digital cameras so I can comparison shop.  It looks like a good place to start my research/search for a "regular" camera that does what I need it to.  I'll let you know what decision I make.

Packing up for my daughter's college orientation and first school year

Guest post written by Laura Stacey


My daughter is one of those people that never wants to get rid of anything. She's been hoarding grades papers, exams, all types of things from her first 13 years of school. Well, we're packing up a lot of her stuff now and dropping her off at her college orientation next week. She'll start classes right after that, so we have to move her into her dorm room at the beginning of her orientation.

Well, I've made her go through a couple of phases of cleaning up her room throughout the summer. I wouldn't even wish cleaning the whole room at one time on my worst enemy. During this last cleaning phase, I tried looking up some ideas about cleaning tips and while I was doing that, I ran across the site http://wirelessinternet.net/. I showed it to my husband and after I looked through it some, I decided to change over our home internet service to one of the packages on there.

I hope that her going to first year orientation right before classes will help her get better acquainted with campus and everything. I have my fingers and toes crossed for her!