My Boys

I took these photos of Nathan and Neil the other day. We homeschool, and even though some homeschool groups do school pictures, I like to do them myself. I wasn't sure what theme to go with this year. In the past, we've done Hawaiian shirts, plaid shirts, denim jackets, and so forth. I thought about hats this year, but decided on ties at the last minute. I think they turned out pretty good. Nicole said they looked like little businessmen. 

Thank you all for your comments on my blog post below this one. They mean a lot to me. I don't know why, but writing that all down and putting it out for people to see really helped. I will get through this, and I just want to say thank you for all the comments I received here, on Facebook, Twitter, and even Instagram. I have some really awesome friends. Thank you.

Barbapapa?

Does anyone have this book or is familiar with it? I stumbled across this 1970 hard cover edition at the thrift store recently. I didn't think much of it, but I like books from that time period, so I bought it. It cost me a whole quarter. I took it home, read it, and then was surprised how cute it was. I decided to do a little sleuthing around, only to learn that the book was part of a series that began in France in the 1970s.

If you would like to learn more about Barbapapa, click here for what Wikipedia says. There is also a Barbapapa website that gives more information, but I don't think you can buy the books directly from there. Click here to check out the website.

I knew nothing about this book series, character, or even that there were cartoons and comic books created. Some of my friends were familiar with it, and one of them says she still has her copy of the book. That's pretty cool. The copy I have has a 1970 copyright, but I don't think it's a first edition.

I don't want to give out too much of the story — just in case you want to check it out for yourself — but it is basically about this blob-like thing that was supposedly born a family's garden. He grew and grew, but became too big for the family to keep, so he gets moved around from place to place. That's all I'll say, but I will add it has a happy ending. That's good. I always love happy endings.

RIP, sweet Kitty.

Best-Dessert-Ever

Okay, so it's not too pretty to look at. You're probably saying, "Gross! What is that?" It's just a scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with Robert Rothchild Farms Roasted Pineapple & Habanero Salsa. I found this stuff at Costco, so I have a big jar of it. I've put it on rice cakes, over meatless patties, on sausages, and so forth. Today I decided to try the ice cream. OH.MY.GOODNESS. Now I'm going to get so low-carb vanilla ice cream so I can enjoy this more often. 

Blue Horses

Rick, the boys, and I are in Billings right now. Rick had a work conference here, so the boys and I tagged along so we could spend some time with Nicole. She goes to Rocky Mountain College and we haven't seen her since Christmas. So, when we found out Rick was coming here for work, we decided to join him and see her when she wasn't in class. Right now the boys are doing some school work in the hotel room, while Rick is at his conference all day. Nicole gets out of class at noon, so we're going to head over the Zoo Montana later on.

On our way here, we saw these blue horse sculptures near Three Forks, Montana. I took a couple of pictures, which I posted on Instagram the other day. Mind you, we were going about 70mph, so the pictures aren't that great. There are something like 39 sculptures on this hill, so it was pretty impressive. They're designed by Jim Dolan. If you click on his name, it leads to his website, but I don't know if you can get to anything about the horses there. There was an article in the Three Forks Herald, if you want to read more about them.

An Egyptian Sistrum

We made a Sistrum in school today. The boys are doing a simple study on the history of music and right now they're learning about ancient times. One of the instruments talked about was the Sistrum. It is basically a percussion instrument that is most often associated with Ancient Egypt. If you click on the link, you can read a little more about it. Obviously, ours isn't quite authentic, but it works. We did our best with an old coat hanger, some wire, and a couple of beads and bells. The boys were each going to make one, but we decided to work on just one together while we were learning about it. Even Denny got into the festivities ...

Messing with Photoshop ...

Unlike my daughter, I have very little knowledge how to work Photoshop. All I ever use is the modified version — Photoshop Elements. Nichelle uses the big program and can do so much. She really amazes me. I found a picture and thought I'd play around with some of the special effects. The results are pretty freaky-deaky! The original photograph is shown above here.

Above effect: Cutout

Above effect:  Glowing Edges

Above effect:  Mosaic Tiles

Above effect:  Neon Glow

Above effect:  Note Paper

Above effect:  Stained Glass

Obviously, these are just a few of the effects. There are a bunch more. I can see how this would be addicting. I've also seen people make pictures out of the Cutout one. There's even one that could be used to make a cross-stitch design. Pretty cool stuff. One of these days I'll learn how to really work the program!