Photoshop

Feels like life has been in the fast lane lately, where has the time gone! The last few weeks seem to have flown by so quickly! Six more weeks until school is out and so much to do. I have parent conferences next Friday and right now am procrastinating getting all my paperwork done. I will be busy this next week that is for sure!
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Last week in photoshop we had four pictures we had to work on: we had to repair a blemished photo of a young girl, give an older man a more youthful appearance, repair a ripped photo that also had missing pieces and restore a very old photo that was stained and faded. When done I had to explain how I fixed each picture and I go a 95 out of 100. I felt good about that. Currently I am restoring a picture taken (I am guessing anywhere between 1913-1917) of a family portrait of my grandmother and family, when she was between 8- 12 years old. It is a little hard to tell because then you had to stand so still because of the way photos were taken. I am guessing the age because her older and younger brothers were both wearing knickers and the youngest wasn't born yet or at least wasn't in the picture as he would have been a baby (the photo wasn't dated) After the photo was scanned and I started working on it, I zoomed in so I could repair small detail. As I was working on it I struck by how much one of my cousins (Becky) looks like my great grandmother! My GG would have been in her late 20's - early 30's and my cousin is 38, so close in age and appearance. After I am done with the photo, have printed it out (the college has a great photo printer!) and saved as.. I will let my cousin know what I found and send her a copy. The plan is that after the photo is restored to get copies made to give to family at our annual family reunion in the fall. I cannot post it because the instructor saved it in Tiff and to post or e-mail photos they need to be saved in jpeg and I will save as .. in jpeg after I am finished. I am able to do some work on it at home on my PC but in class we use Mac.
Then the final project is to make a CD cover. I have all the information and he went over it last night. I don't know what to do it on. There are 2 more classes then the final. I am to save the project on a flash drive and he will then download it onto his computer. We are also to not flatten it but to save all the layers so he can see how we did it. I have asked Elizabeth to help me. She has a Mac and has CS2 on it (the professional version), plus she has more knowledge of working with digital images and photshop, after all she is a photography major and I trust her knowledge!

Random shots.

Keith sold his Geo last month, and now has 1991 Escort. The colors aren't as vibrant in this photo as in real life. This is one of my favorite roses with the oranges and yellows so vibrant. Looks pink here but it is an orange red.

The miniature pink roses finally bloomed.

Lots of little things emerging!

First of all, let me say that my pictures posted backwards from how I loaded them. Why? Who knows?
Friday was a very exciting day in our Prekindergarten classroom. We got to see the chicks in the 2nd grade classroom and how they had grown. They were going home to their farm that day. We had a turtle and 3 ducklings for show and tell, also.
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Read on for the rest of the exciting news.

If you double click on the pictures they will enlarge. You are looking at praying mantis. They began hatching Friday during class. Of course, you can imagine the excitement of the children as they watched the progression of the praying mantis emerge from the egg.

As we were watching and talking about what was going on my associate said "Did one just bite the head off one?" Yep. Because this all was happening on Friday we told the children what was going on and then we headed outside and found a secluded corner in the yard that was semi protected, yet had lots of decomposing leaves where there would be many tiny types of bugs and insects for them to eat.
Praying mantis are carnivorous critters and when there are no other sources of food available for them to eat, they will turn and eat one another. That is the way God made them. They are an insect that are not only harmless to humans and their environment but are fundamentally good because they will eat bugs that damage our food crops.

Our butterflies (Painted Lady) also emerged from their cocoons earlier in the week. It had been way to windy to let them fly so I brought in some Sweet Williams for food until we were able to let them fly. I grow them in my garden at home. Four cocooned and all four emerged, but not on the same day. Two flew and two we will release on Monday. As we teach about the butterflies they also learn about bees and pollination, which they both do.
You can see 3 of 4 in the last picture. The red is not blood but a type of fluid/ink that is part of their metamorphoses

The silk worms are tiny and growing. I will take them in on Monday. The children are eagerly anticipating the worms. I have read the book, we have discussed the pictures. I have taken in some cocoons that didn't hatch last year, and will take in some more that did, for them to pick up, touch and pull off some silk strands.

These are such visual learning and teaching instruments, and the children remember so much when they can see what is happening. It is fun to watch and listen to the children as they huddle around the containers in the science area, discussing this among themselves. It is such great language, especially for the children who are learning English.

This also allows me to talk about some of the creations God made and the who, what and whys of these critters. I do themes on snakes and spiders also, especially since my school is in the country and there are rattlesnakes and black widows in abundance around here. We had a baby rattler in the boys bathroom four years ago, and black widows in the shed in our yard. They can be very scary. I try to teach the children they do not need to be afraid of these creatures and yo have a healthy respect for the creatures: and why they should not touch things they don't know what are or could be very dangerous for them.

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When my older children were little we lived in the community known as Big Sur. They had so many opportunities there it was unbelievable. Because we didn't have reception and satellite TV did not exist my children had no TV for 4 years, so we did a lot of reading and different outside things including exploring. There was so much community involvement in the school that their learning experiences were expanded way beyond the classroom. I think in a way I try to keep some of that learning and bring it into my classroom. That is one of the reasons I do some of the things I do.

Achy muscles

I am a little tired of the weather this last week, way to hot for April. Two days at 98, then 96, 87, today around 76~ which is more the normal this time of year.
I added weights to my work out this week and I am feeling it a little. I probably will leave the weights where they are. At my age just how much weights do I need to be able to handle? I have found that I like the cross trainer much, much more then the treadmill.
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All my rose bushes have finally bloomed. My garden is just full of color. I will post some pictures later after work.
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After all the fires in Calif. last summer (every summer) I am saddened to hear about the fires in S.C. Fires are just bad no matter where they are!
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God bless ♥

Too hot!

One of the 2nd grade teachers, where I work, incubates eggs for her class. I was able to take my class in one day last week to see the baby chicks. They are so cute. We will go in again this week to see how much they have grown. I have 24 children in my class so I divide them up into groups of 8, it's less distracting as class is in session when we go in.
It has been hot the last 2 days. 95 today and the same tomorrow. That is around 15 degrees higher then what is normal for this time of year. I am posting a photo of Chloe, she is sprawled out on the cat climber, where she is getting a direct breeze from the ceiling fan.

At least the mornings are cool and it is still cooling down at night.

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I am still going through the retirement papers I need to send in. Hoping to get them in the mail before Friday. I am also finishing up assessments and getting ready for conferences. The rest of the school does not do spring conferences. We do them so we can let parents know where their child is socially and academically as they are getting ready to go into kindergarten the end of August. I don't like some surprises and so I let parents know 'if' I have any concerns that I will pass onto the kindergarten teachers and I do hand over a copy of the 'academic' part of the assessments to the K teachers, the parents get a copy also. On the last day of school I send home a little packet of work for the children to do over the summer. I laminate the papers so they can practice their names, letters, etc. using a washable marker. Then they can wipe off the marker with a damp cloth and do it again.

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Tonight it is no fun doing paper work when it is so hot, and it is way to early to even think of using the AC.

It is getting late, but I think at last it is cool enough so I can get some sleep.

My yard is blooming ♥

I wanted to post some pictures of my yard. The weather has gone from extremely windy and cold to more then warm. The flowers are in all stages of bloom. God has a mighty way of painting beauty for us!

Oops.

There is always going to be something missed when children grow up. One is coloring Easter eggs. The kids had fun and the cat was curious.

BUT, I still make "Bunny Bags" for those who are at home. I am afraid 'these' bunnies had a hard time waiting for Easter morning.

They still had a smile on their face.

Need I say more? What's done is done. ♥ We had a good Easter, hope you all did, also.

Praise the Lord!

He is risen!
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. HAPPY EASTER everyone! ♥ ♥

Odds and ends ♥

Here is a funny picture of Squirt. He is so afraid of going outside, but loves to watch the birds. This is his latest position ~ on most days. He is watching the finches or doves on the ground eating the seed that has been knocked down.

We have found a cat food that does not make his food allergy flare up. It is so nice not to have to take him in every other month for his allergy shot. It is nice that he has all his fur also, he looks so funny and pathetic when he is half bald.

Keith and Elizabeth getting ready to go to their older brother's for a couple days.
I really thought the storm we had the other night ruined my flowers, but I was (happily) wrong. The Sweet Williams are beginning to bloom. If you want butterflies to come to your garden these flowers are one of several that will attract them. I really like them~ one package produces many different colors and they will reseed for years.

The roses are beginning to let loose. Here is a picture of just a few. If you look closely you can see the buds. There are 4 different bushes in this photo and all different colors.

I thought the iris's were gone, surprisingly they did survive. They are laying down a bit but still look pretty.

I have been working out at the gym more. This week I added some more weight to some of my routines, and I am feeling it. I have started using the cross trainer ramp and that really gives me a work out. I don't usually go on the weekend, but am thinking of going tomorrow as I skipped today. We try and go between 3-4 days a week.

Well, now it is about time to think about dinner, think I'll do breakfast tonight!

Slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

My computer/internet has been at a snail's pace lately ~ for any number of reasons. This is the first I have been able to get to my blog in a couple of days, or to read those that I follow.

We had one terrific storm go by last night, thunder, lightening and rain that was extremely loud. Two of our cats hid for sometime and would have slept with us if they could, but they aren't allowed in the bedrooms. It was enough to wake us up around 1:00 am, and the thunder sounded as if was right above our house (but it wasn't, it was just very loud). Having lived in the Sierra's for several years we have experienced lightening just across the street from us. We got close to an inch of rain in just a few hours. There is another storm coming in tomorrow evening and through Friday. Last I heard 'our' storm was in Utah and I don't know where it is going from there. The valley really needs the rain.

Elizabeth and I went down to the passport office Tuesday so she could get the application process started. I believe they said 8 - 10 weeks. When she went to New Zealand it took around 3-4 months. If all goes well she should be moving to Korea this summer to join her husband who is stationed in South Korea. We will also apply, who knows maybe we'll go to Korea for a visit.

I finally talked to my supervisor about my retiring this June. I now need to fill out the paperwork and get it in the mail. Since my computer is now up to some speed I can finish reading the information that was sent to me (I don't want to download 50 pages of instruction, I just want to fill out the 10 pages I have.) I am still struggling with it a little ~ so I will put my name on the sub list, but I am also looking forward to the time I will have doing some of the other things I enjoy and just spending time with my husband. More on that later. Since we are planning on driving to Colorado this summer to visit our daughter and her family, we now will have more flexibility in planning our trip and what we can do!

God Bless ♥

Photoshop

In my photoshop class the instructor is talking about scanning now. We will be taking in a picture that needs repairing, scan it and then fix it. I am not sure which one I will take in, as I have several to choose from. Last night I took in a tin picture of my dad on his 1st birthday (1925). We weren't sure if it would scan or not, after making the necessary adjustments on the scanner it was a go. It scanned really well, I am pleased. I had a flash drive with me so we were able to save it, and that makes me happy. Now I can work on it at home and then get some copies for other family members.

He downloaded some of the pictures we will be "repairing" so I can practice at home. There were 4 students left at 9:00, class is over at 11:00, so we all were able to get some downloads to take home. Three of the others, me being the fourth, have CS3 or CS4 at home, I have Photoshop 7. But I will do what I can, and at least it will give me some practice. I need to mention that the 4 of us at 9:00 were not the youthful typical college students, but more the more mature ones that really want to learn the program. It is interesting learning this stuff, but lectures and video tend to be on the dull side. Working on the computer, going through the book, step by step is not always exciting but it is hands on and it does help. Sometimes I need to do a lesson over a couple times to really get. I have finished all the required lessons, now he will give me some extras to work on in class or I can just go over the more difficult ones I had.

We have had some nice weather, but we still could use more rain. I am afraid that anymore storms that may come our way will not be significant in the amount of rainfall or snow we need, but hey anything is better then nothing. The flowers are doing great and the oranges are delicious.