7 days: 2 Style

7 days: 2 Style
Originally uploaded by TNsouthernbelle

This is the picture for Day 2 of 7 Days. It rained all day long on Sunday March 21 and it was quite chilly for the first full day of Spring. The day before was warm and beautiful and then the rain brought in a cold front. It was unwelcome!

So, today my original thought was to get a picture of me in the rain and so that you could see me standing in puddles. Well, since it was raining, I couldn't take my camera into the rain so I set my tripod up in the garage and then I couldn't get a picture close enough for the detail. So, this is what we get. I really need a longer focus lens! Hint hint.

The theme was style for today. I was styling the rain gear. I am actually wearing Drama Queen's rainboots and they were like two sizes too small. My toes were literally curled into them. I need to get me a pair of rainboots!

Spring 7 days 2010

Spring 7 days 2010
Originally uploaded by TNsouthernbelle

Today is the first day of my Flickr 7 Days group. In the Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter we have a 7 day run where you take a self portrait a day and post it to the group. It is a lot of fun and I love seeing what creative ways people find to take a self portrait. Here is my picture for the first day, Saturday March 20, 2010.

I am not crazy about the way I look here, but what can you do? Chloe kept trying to jump up in my lap so I just picked her up and let her be a part of my self portrait. You can see in the reflection behind me that Steve and the girls are practicing ball in the backyard.

February Birthdays

This past weekend we celebrated my nieces 12th birthday. Time should not be able to pass this quickly. It is always fun when we get the family together to celebrate such occasions. Her birthday usually starts them off for the year and then Anna's is the next one in May and then it is a monthly occasion after that.

In addition, we had cute babies to play with and watch explore. They are both 9 months old and crawling everywhere. Following are pictures of the cuties.

Lisa and Ella Marie stayed at our house so I was able to snap a couple of shots of Ella Marie. These are straight out of the camera with no editing.

More pictures to come later.

Photo Shoot

I mentioned that I am trying to improve on my photography skills. I really want to be able to take great pictures like people I see on Flickr. They inspire me to get better. My oldest daughter likes to pose for me and she is really photogenic. I like to use her for practice. We recently did a photo shoot of her and our neighbor Megan. I am posting some of those pictures below.

In my quest to get better, you may be able to tell that I need help in certain areas. Mainly, lighting. I have bought some heavy duty lights and also used a powerful light from the garage, but I can's seem to get the lighting right so that there are no shadows. I still need to work on that. Also, as you will see in some photos I have edited them. I got Photoshop software for Christmas and I have been practicing my editing skills. I can only do the basics so far. Look for improvement there also.

Now, here are a few photos from a photo shoot a couple of weeks ago with my girls, one of the neighbors and my neice.

Ice Storm 2010

Hello, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kelly Metaxas and I am the owner of this here blog. I find it kind of ironic that the last post was of a significant snow because we get so few and that is what I am posting about today. This year however it was primarily ice with a little snow thrown in. I didn't get any pictures of the snow/ice or the girls in it because we didn't really get out in it because ice is just no fun. Instead, I am including a picture of what happened to our house as a result of this ice.

We discovered this lovely huge spot in our garage that was leaking about 1:00 Sunday afternoon. My daughter saw it when she was going outside to shovel the driveway! That would have lasted all of five minutes if she had gotten there. As you can see in this picture, this hole is about the size of a sofa in length. It was just dripping when we noticed it and we were clueless of where it could be coming from. There are no bathrooms or anything to leak in that wall. The playroom is directly above that. So, we called our neighbor over because he used to do some plumbing work when he was in the service. We cut the sheetrock out so we could track the source of the leak. Apparently it is from the weight of the ice just sitting on the roof. Our gutters are clogged up with ice and so nothing was really draining so I guess the melted ice had to find somewhere to go. We really don't think we have a leak per se because we have never had any problems with that in the past. We have decided to just patch the hole and wait for another rain storm to see if it leaks anymore before we file a claim and search our roof for the leak. If we were to file a claim our insurance will likely go up because it will be our third claim. We filed for damage on our other house from Hurricane Elvis and then electricity hit our house about a year ago. We think our deductible is about $500 and it should be less than that to repair the hole.

So, that is my storm story of the Ice Storm of 2010. The schools were out on Friday because that is when the ice storm came. They are out again today even though the sun melted a good deal of it yesterday. The rural roads in the northern part of the county still have ice on them so we get a day off. The girls are excited. It is going to be hard to get them back in the groove because I don't think they have gone a full week since Christmas and they have a day off next week for President's day.

I am trying to take more and more pictures to improve my photography skills. I am going to try and post some of those pictures so I can track my progress. I hope to be able to see an improvement over time. So, for the future that will be my sole purpose of posting on this blog. Let's see if I can keep that up!

Winter Wonderland

Do you want to know when the last time was that we received a significant snow fall? By significant I mean more than and inch or two. It was in 1968. I was three years old and we had somewhere around 18 inches. Yesterday we had anywhere from 5-10 inches depending on what part of town you live in. At my house we got approximately 5 1/2 - 6 inches.

The Kids had an absolute blast playing in the snow, throwing snowballs, trying to make snowmen and sliding down hills. We bundled up and headed across the street to our neighbors where they have a huge slope in the backyard. The only downfall is that at the end of the hill you either stop or land in the lake. Thankfully we did not have anyone end up in the lake but we got close a couple of times.

I hope you enjoy this entry of photographs. Sometimes pictures tell the story better than words do. All I can say is that I am so ready for spring!

D-Now

Just a quick post to say boy have things been busy over the last several days. This past weekend we hosted nine 10th grade girls at our house for the whole weekend. It was for Disciple Now at church. They were a great group of girls which I was surprised about. I figured my house would get trashed, they would stay awake all night long etc. However, they left the house immaculate when they left and unlike other groups I heard about, they did sleep. Steve and I not only hosted but had to drive them back and forth to their worship location Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and Saturday night. One of the girls that stayed at our house was saved during the event so that made it all worthwhile. Of course that had absolutely nothing to do with me. Their was a college age leader that also stayed at our house with them that led independent bible studies with them in addition to the worship segments they attended. Drama Queen stayed at someone else's house because they don't like to put your own children in your home. She really had a good time. Hurricane A was home for half of the weekend and now she is ready to participate in one herself but you have to be in 6th grade so she has a couple of years.

Sunday afternoon I took a nap because I was so tired. It's not like I didn't sleep or anything because I did. I guess with age you just can't be on the go that much and have the energy you did at that age. My wash got so behind because I did not touch it at all the entire weekend. I spent all day Tuesday washing clothes and finally got caught up.

I had drama practice last night and have it again tonight and tomorrow night. We are getting ready for our performance of Hee Haw on March 7. At rehearsal last night we laughed until we cried. I hope the performance ends up being as funny as we are trying to make it.

I give honor to my hometown of Loverlip, Mississippi, population of 1200. S-A-L-U-T-E!