You Capture – Food

Ahh, food.  I could have taken photos of the amazing meal I haven’t cooked.  Or the cookies I didn’t bake.  Or the tea I ruined.

Instead, here is my lunch:

Turkey Sammich and a jelly-filled donut

You are welcome.

For more (better) food, visit Beth.

Wordful Wednesday – RAFO

So last week, I was honored to help out with a book signing for The Gathering Storm, the newest Wheel of Time book.  The creator was Robert Jordan, after he died in 2007, Brandon Sanderson was hired to complete the series.  The Wheel of Time is an epic fantasy series consisting of 12 books, with 2 more to come in the next two years to finish it up.  I highly recommend it if you are into that kind of thing.

Brandon Sanderson is author of many amazing books, including the Mistborn trilogy and a series of Young Adult novels called Alcatrez that are basically improv writing.  Seriously, if you have a 9-13 year old who enjoys snarky comments and stories about librarians that rule the world, or have ever BEEN a 9-13 year old, you need to check them out.  For serious.

As payment for helping out with the book signing, we got to have dinner with Mr. Sanderson, paid for by the publisher.  During the dinner, we got to ply him with tons of questions about anything we wanted.  Only a few were about the Wheel of Time series, but I did get to get in my question.  It’s convoluted and confusing to anyone that hasn’t read them, but it was a question I had asked the previous author, Robert Jordan, years ago when I had met him.  The answer that he had given was this:

“Young lady, you need to have an affair with a man, woman or German Shepherd.  Either way, you need to get a life.”

Upon asking this question to Mr. Sanderson, he interrupted me with “That was you?!”  Apparently the story has been going around the fan world for years.

I also received a coveted “R.A.F.O.” card from him.  R.A.F.O. stands for “Read and Find Out” which was an extremely common answer for any question that might be exposed in the future books.

It was a good day.

And yes, my name is Kathy.  Anyone that has commented will not be surprised.  :p

iHeart Faces – Sun Flare

This is an oldie, but a goodie.  Last fall, I was pregnant, just before the hugely pregnant stage, and took my niece out to a corn field and shot a bunch of photos of her and then of her with her husband.  Had a blast and got some great shots.  I wish I could back and do some playing around with the camera settings and get away from the Auto mode that I used, but alas, will just have to work on that in the future.

For more glorious sun flare images, check out iHeart Faces!

You Capture – Sunrise/Sunset

I thought I was going to have to cheat and pull from the archives for this shot.  This whole week has been SO rainy and overcast that even though I’ve been awake for the sunrise and sunsets, the sky has been too covered to see anything but grey.

Storms so bad that on my drive into work on Tuesday, I had to move a tree out of my way.  This tree was on my gravel drive.  On a huge hill with a massive drop off.  Oh, and did I mention there were coyotes talking to each other far closer than I liked?

But that has nothing to do with this post.

Wednesday morning though, was amazing.  My husband spent the day with my brother so he had to drop me off at work.

In mid conversation, while on the highway, I stop talking.  Grab my phone.  And take this picture:

I knew I had my You Capture photo.  As much as I wish I could have had a real camera with my, I am still in love with this shot.  It was gorgeous.

For more sunrise/sets, visit Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry.

Wordless Wednesday – Christmas Card Outtakes

Ooops....

Quick! Look over here!

No smile?

Maybe just one of Darius?

Hey...come back here! I'm not done with you!

For more Wordless Wednesday, visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

A Fighting Princess

Once Upon A Time, there was a beautiful Princess.  She had married an evil Prince who was a **insert many bad words here** and left her.  This beautiful Princess then found out she was pregnant.

She was excited and scared.  She already had an amazingly beautiful little Prince to take care of, but was ready to add another child to her family.  Time went on and she was even more excited upon discovering that she would have another Princess in her family.

But then something happened.  She was born too soon.  Several months too soon, in fact.

This beautiful Princess was born before her time, but she was a fighter.  Every day, the beautiful Princess watched her daughter, her precious little daughter fight to take a breath.  To have her heart beat.  To live.

Time passed.  Things started to get better.  Slowly, she grew stronger.

Eventually, the little Princess was able to breath on her own.  She ate on her own.

Now?  Years later?

She is a healthy, happy teenager.  A true beautiful Princess.  And her mother has a handsome Prince.

And they all lived Happily Ever After.

But not all do.  Help us fight for those that can’t fight for themselves.

Visit March of Dimes to see how you can help.  Volunteer, Donate, Walk.

Every little bit helps.  Anything helps.

Lets get everyone to live Happily Ever After.

The Gross Part – How to Fillet

I’ve just recently begun to enjoy eating fish.  I went through a long faze where anything fishy just was disgusting.  Didn’t want to eat it, touch it, smell it, look at it.  You couldn’t catch me in a sushi restaurant, let alone eat it.

I’ve slowly begun to get past that.  I still will only eat certain items, but I’m okay in a restaurant that serves strictly fish.  Clam Chowder is delicious, as is most salmon, as long as it is cooked.  I still can’t handle eating sushi or sashimi, but someday….someday.

What this also means is that I was able to watch my husband and dad fillet the fish they caught last weekend without wanting to vomit.  In fact, I got up close and personal with the fish.  And the camera.  Possibly too close.

So here is a warning.  These pictures may be too graphic for some.  So if you don’t want to see some fish blood (no guts…guts were already taken out…) go ahead and click out.

You can always visit my favorite Aunt Becky.  Or the fabulous Dallas Ann.  Or go play with a Farm.

This is your last chance.

My dad, as he lifts the fish.  He’s probably going to be mad that I posted this picture…but I love it.  It shows just how heavy the fish is, when you lift it from a different angle.

This ones better.

First, you cut off the head.  Having it talk to your baby is not a necessary step…but entertaining nonetheless.

Then off comes the tail.

Once the tail is off, you want to start separating the two big pieces.

This is the part that can get messy….as long as it’s cut, you are successful…don’t know how in the world the Iron Chefs can do it in like, 5 seconds.  It took the two of them about 10 minutes to do this.

But eventually it is separated.  Keeping the skin on it keeps it together better.  You want to make sure to carefully clean off the bits and pieces before you freeze it.

It’s a messy messy job….

As gross as it is, there is still a quiet beauty about it.

Don’t worry, I won’t be watching anyone butcher a deer anytime soon…

Can’t wait to try out the recipes you guys shared!

Werds….

I haz no werds 2day.

So instead, leave you with this:

But I am putting together a post for Monday…don’t read it if you don’t want to see fish guts…

You Capture – Real Life

I’ve done Day in the Lifes before, and if I had been thinking properly this week, I would have done it again.  But alas, my brain?  So not here.

But this is my life.  My Real Life.  The Work Version.

The drive in, rainy as usual.

Breakfast! Toast and Honey Nut Cherrios. Yum!

Projects to work on.

Phone calls to make and take.

Invoices to fold and mail.

My breast, er, best friend.

And throughout the day?  The only place I want to be is here:

with her.

Visit Beth’s for more Real Life glimpses.

Veteran’s Day

Service for our country has been strong in my family.  My father was in the Air Force and developed his love for photography, as he was in charge of the film on the recon planes.  Both of my brothers were in the Marines.  Not to mention the fact that the majority of my cousins were or are in all branches except for the Army.

Today though?  I want to honor my little brother specifically.  This is most likely going to get long….

He is three years younger than me, and growing up, we fought.  Constantly.  Yelling, screaming, hitting, kicking, biting.  You name it, we did it.

I broke his leg when he was about 1 year old.  Mom told me to fold a blanket and he insisted on crawling onto it and would. not. move.  Even then he was stubborn.  So I tossed the blanket over his head and jumped on him.

Karma came back to me when I got attacked by the neighbors dog and had scratches all down my face.  There is a picture floating around somewhere of the two of us passed out asleep on the bed, me with my face all messed up and him with his little cast.  We look like victims of a car wreck or something.

In high school, I was always active in Dance Team and theater.  Even though I was what could be considered an awkward geek, my brother was much worse.  He was like many teenage boys and rarely showered, barely washed his hair when he did shower and was most often seen reading or behind a computer.

He is smart.  Like, really smart.  He was taking college courses his junior year in high school.  Japanese, in fact.  Along with being super smart, he was also lazy like me.  He wouldn’t want to show his work and homework was stupid and a waste of time.  So he’d get A’s on his tests and almost fail the class because he refused to do homework.  The low grades meant he didn’t qualify for most colleges, even with his SAT and ASVAB scores off the charts.  So instead?  He decided to join the Marines.

My overweight, stinky, lazy brother joined the Marines.

It was probably the hardest thing he’s ever done.  But he finished.  He succeeded in growing into a man.  My baby brother was no longer a child.

After some time in the states, my brother was sent to Okinawa, Japan.  He was there during my wedding and they wouldn’t let him come home because he was going on deployment.  He knew he wouldn’t be able to come to the wedding before then and so bought our wedding rings for us.  It was so special and I always think of him when I look at it.

We were able to see him a couple months later under horrible circumstances.  Instead of being deployed to Iraq, he was deployed halfway down the island while their boats were in dry-dock.  When my grandmother died, he was able to catch a flight home for the funeral.

We then spent a weekend down in Southern Oregon with family.  As horrible as the event was, it was so great to see him again.

He then went back to Okinawa and finally went on deployment, kind of.  He was sent with his group to the Philippines.  A year later, he was able to come visit for Christmas.

As he was getting onto the plane to head back to Okinawa, he passed out.  He had had some issues (involving falling down stairs in fact) with his heart but the doctors said it was just heartburn.

It’s been more than 2 years, and the doctors are still stumped.  He’s been retired from the Marines for almost a year, at full disability because of these heart issues.  Coughing hurts.  He has a cane for walking around on campus because he gets tired.  Retired and old at 24.

Don’t tell anyone, but I love my baby brother.

Happy Veteran’s Day.

_____________________________

It’s also Maddie’s Birthday.  A little girl who touched the whole world.  She would have been two today.

Are you a Friend of Maddie?