New Camera

Ellie took some nice photos of my kiddos with my new digital SLR. You can find them on her blog.
I've included a few here (and some I took).
One of the students we took to India in January had a digital SLR (Canon). I enjoyed shooting some photos with it. Upon our return home, I asked Joel if I could buy one if I sold enough stuff to pay for it. He said yes. He wanted one too.
Immediately, I was thinking of my old Mac laptop, which was sitting in a closet and had been used only a handful of times in the last year. Though it was 7 1/2 years old and had just a 10GB hard drive, I got $260 for it using craigslist. The person who bought it also got a good deal on a nice running machine. Since that sale, I've sold lots of other things...ranging from childrens shoes (I had over 50 pair that my kids have outgrown) to Mary Kay consultant items to my double nursing pillow (can't really see why I'll need it again...so we pray!) to my old printer (doesn't work with the latest Mac OS).
I sold enough to buy my new digital SLR...a Nikon D40 with a 18-55mm lens and a 55-200mm VR zoom lens. I got a sweet deal that also included a free Nikon camera bag, an awesome color photo printer, a free photo book, photo classes, a digital photo frame, and Nikon lesson DVDs. Not bad! I just LOVE the feel of an SLR. I can take great action photos and the zoom is amazing. I feel like I'm an even better photographer with my point and shoot now that I'm playing with the SLR. Funny how that works.
Enjoy the pictures. I'm sure there will be lots more cool shots in the future.
The tomatoes we're growing on our patio. One is turning red this week....can't wait to taste it!

Good message

I saw this music video on a friend's photography blog.

I find the song to be challenging and encouraging.

I hope you will be stirred, as well.

A few of my favorite lyrics:
"We still debate the second coming of Christ while half of the world hasn't heard of the first."
"The heart of God is with the poor and depressed while we sit here rich and fat and call ourselves blessed."

My life needs to change.

Adventures in Water

We went on another little weekend trip.

We previewed a timeshare presentation.

We were wary, but it turned out to be fine. It was a nice little getaway for our family.

We stayed in a nice hotel for 2 nights. It had free breakfast...and not just coffee and donuts. It was a filling one! For our family, that bonus alone was worth our time listening to the timeshare schpeal.

We also got free passes to an indoor waterpark. I didn't take my camera in. Asa and Rylee loved the slides. Jenna wasn't so keen on them. But, they all liked the lazy river. Rylee finally took the plunge and went underwater.

Back at the hotel pool, she couldn't resist doing it over and over again. I finally caught it on camera! (Along with Asa's best water trick.)



We are ready for summer! Swim lessons for all three kiddos starts tomorrow morning. I think we're all very excited!