Photography Class

As I mentioned before, I have been taking a community ed. class on photography with 5 other friends. It has been a lot fun and I do think I've learned a lot about using my camera to get the best possible pictures. Let face it, though, I'll never be the next Heather Ives (click on her wedding photos to see my gorgeous sis Lindsay) but I'm getting better.

Here's our assignment from the first week, a self-portrait:

The teacher said this could have been a great picture, but I didn't quite get it right. (He doesn't spare anyone's feelings when critiquing photos.)

The next week we were to take a picture of something in the kitchen. Here's what I chose:

He said, "That's pretty." and then handed it back to me without another word. It wasn't in the running for the prize.

The last week's assignment was "something red". Here's my two that made it to the final round:

He liked the composition on this one

And this one came in second place overall:

Funny thing is, the pencil was my least favorite! Maybe I just don't have a photographer's eye.

LOST: Spoiler Alert

Yes, Lost starts tonight, and yes, I'm excited. Lucky for you I am a subscriber to Entertainment Weekly (for Mark to put in his wating rooms...who are we kidding, it's for me) so I have the inside scoop for you. After studying a six page article entitled "Secrets of the Final Season" I have one important item to share with you:

Richard Alpert does not wear eyeliner, those are just his dark eyelashes.

That's it.

Other than that, the article was full of quotes from the producers like:

"You can expect lots of twists and turns."

and

"...it might be impossible to resolve the fundamental mystery of the Island without begging even more impossible-to-answer metaphysical questions."

Umm...what?!? Why do I have a feeling that with just 16 episodes left I'm still going to be as confused as ever?

Snow Dog

Much to her dismay, this will probably be the only dog Mallory will have in this yard.

Volleyball

I played volleyball with the ladies in the ward last Saturday and it was really fun (stop laughing Moyes family as I know you're recalling classic home video of my volleyball skills when I was in YW's). Problem is Mark has forbidden me from playing again due to the many bruises that have formed on my hand and forearm. I get my propensity to bruise easily from my mother (along with my insomnia and soda addiction...thanks mom!)

Maybe my BYU roommates will remember that when I went on my first date with Mark I was taking a volleyball class and my arms were completely black and blue and swollen. He liked me anyways, although he probably worried about a former abusive boyfriend. (Hi Doug! Just kidding!) I guess now Mark doesn't want to be the one accused of battery. So I have to decide whether the pain and bruising are worth having fun every Saturday morning (because you know they don't need me on the team...I still can't serve worth a darn!)

Whatcha doin?

I'm sure those of you that don't live close by often find yourself wondering, "What is Tiffani's family doing right now?" Well here's a peek into our current pastimes/obsessions/ways we waste our time:


Brady:

Puzzles. At any given time there are two or more puzzles in various stages of completion on our kitchen island. Now you know how I feel about having a clean island, so this has not been easy for me, but he loves it.

Mark: BYU basketball. We watch pretty much every single game, start to finish. Did you know the Cougars are 20-2 and are currently ranked #10 in the nation? (That will unfortunately change after our heartbreak loss to New Mexico this week.) How many colleges do you know that have a great football and basketball team? Not Boise State, that's for sure!

McKenzie: Food Network. If she's not on the computer or her cell phone (which is currently not working...grrr!), she's watching a competition on Food Network. Her favorite are the elaborate cake designs.

Dallin: Nintendo DS. He's completely obsessed and seems to have it with him at all times except for the 5-6 times a week when he loses it or it gets hidden by his sisters. He also continues to read voraciously. He finished all the Harry Potters in about a month and is now plowing through the Charlie Bone series. He's already received the highest award in the school's reading rewards program, so his teacher says she's gonna have to come up with some new prize for him to work towards. (Sorry for the shameless bragging)

Mallory: Club Penguin. OK, all my kids are obsessed with this online game, but Mallory the most. She lives in Penguinworld (don't know if that's what it's called) more than our own. I had to laugh while visiting teaching yesterday and one friend was saying she limits her kids to 1/2 hour of "screen time" a day. What a great mom! My kids don't know what to do with themselves if they're not sitting in front of a screen. Just one more reason I'll never be nominated mother of the year.

Me: Watching "How I Met Your Mother" on DVD, taking a bath in the middle of the day, drinking Cranberry Sierra Mist (with a lime wedge...pretty close to Sonic's cherry limeade). This is what I do when the kids are in school. Yep, pretty much equates to sitting around eating bonbons. Sorry to rub in the fact that all my kids are in school and I have lots of free time on my hands. I've also been working on organizing my photos from the past two years. Here's two funny ones I found that the kids had taken in the fall of '08 ('cause I know the real reason you check my blog is to see my cute kids.)

Why am I taking a photography class when Brady can stick the camera out and take a self-portrait like this?

So how are you all wasting your time these days?

Saturday Night Stake Dance

Oh to be 14 again! Here's Kenzie and Heather getting ready for the dance: Kenzie pretending she doesn't care what she looks like because boys=ewwww! and Heather doing her best to makeover Kenz (hair straigtened? check, makeup? no way!)

Random Updates

Happy 2010! I know, I'm a little bit late on that one. Nothing too newsworthy to report here, but I thought I'd fill you in on a few things:



1. It's January in Idaho and it's cold. I stay inside most of the time. We have had a few unusually warm days (like high 40's-50's) and I've forced my children to stay outside for hours at a time. Dallin was only wearing a t-shirt and he thought that was fine. If we were in Phx. they would all be begging for coats. It's all relative. We haven't had any snow for a few weeks now and I'm getting tired of the brown grass and bare trees. If it's going to be cold it might as well be pretty and white, right? I'm hoping for an early spring.



2. I've starting scrapbooking again for the first time in 2 years (since I packed up my scraproom to sell the house in Phx.) I'm enjoying it, especially since Mark surprised me with a Cricut machine for Christmas. That thing is awesome!



3. For the next week or so I am the mother of 5 children instead of 4. Kenzie's friend Heather is staying with us while her parents are in Hawaii. She's a wonderful girl and a good friend to Kenz. She's very helpful and polite and easy-going (probably because she's the youngest of 7 kids...love that!) The girls were up late the other night finishing their big "protest project" for English. The issue they were defending? Choosing adoption over abortion. Way to be an "example of the believers", girls!



4. I'm taking a photography class with a few friends. Maybe I shouldn't disclose that because now you'll all be expecting better quality photos on the blog. We'll see. I'm supposed to take a creative self portrait for class on Monday. Any suggestions?



5. My hair is longer than it's been in many years and it really needs a trim. Lindsay, isn't it time for a visit? I miss you and your alleged baby bump (I'll believe it when I see it) and your mad hair-cutting skills.



6. Our new favorite show? "Chuck". We're catching up on the first 2 seasons and DVRing the new one. Thanks for the recommendation Teri! Perfect show for both Mark and me (comedy, romance, action, computer nerds). We're choosing not to watch "24" this year. I've loved you for so long Jack Bauer, but the violence has just gotten to be too much. Can't wait for "Lost" to start, though, but I still don't think I'm going to have any clue about what's going on.

7. I finally saw "New Moon" yesterday for the first time. Funny how I was the first person I knew to read the book and the last to see the movie. It was OK, definitely better than the first, but still a little too cheesy and filled with teenage angst for me. We went with a bunch of ladies to celebrate a friend's birthday and when Jacob took off his shirt for the first time Michelle yelled out "Happy Birthday Marci!" Hilarious.

OK, so now you're all caught up on what's been going on around here. To recap: cold, Cricut, extra kid, better photos, too-long hair, new TV season, shirtless werewolf. Happy January!