WOW! Its been six months since I posted on here! Have I been that busy? or have I been that lazy? Maybe a little of both. The weather is definitely not sunny and bright, it is snowy and cloudy. Here are a few pictures just so you can see:

It was FINALLY hot enough for the kids to swim!!!!

BEFORE & AFTER EDITING RAW FILES

I am insisting on learning how to shoot in Raw format and edit in Lightroom. I do not know why I am doing this to myself. All the software I currently own is for JPEG format which means I actually have to BUY Lightroom when the trial expires and Raw format takes up lots more space on my hard drive. Here is an example of an edit I practiced on today.

Andrew's EIU Graduation May 2012

CONGRATULATIONS ANDREW! WE LOVE YOU AND SO PROUD OF YOU!

Jessie's First Brake Job

Christine's car needed new brake pads so Paul replaced them but had Jessie help.

Raising Chickens For Eggs and Meat

For a few month we have been getting fresh farm brown eggs from our friends Shannon and Bert. At first I couldnt tell the difference in taste but now I definitely can and I dont think I can ever go back to eating store bought commercial eggs. I also recently read and article in Grit magazine that had this information:
Pasture eggs have 10 percent less fat, 34 percent less cholesterol, 40 percent more vitamin A and four times as much omega-3 compared to the standard values reported by the USDA for commercial eggs

Pasture chickens (with skin on) contain 21 percent less fat, 30 percent less saturated fat and 50 percent more vitamin A than the USDA standard.

After having read this I CANNOT EVER EAT STORE BOUGHT CHICKEN OR EGGS!
Unfortunately our laying chickens are only 6 weeks old and wont lay eggs till they are 4 or 5 months and our broiler chickens are only 3 weeks old and dont plan on eating these until the next batch of babies!

Early Mornings at Our House!

Country Life is so beautiful!!!!!!
This is how it looked early one Spring Morning.
I wish that all of our Florida family could come and enjoy one week out here so they could see why I LOVE IT SO MUCH!

A Sunday Afternoon at the Hopley House. :)

Someone is always getting wormed around here....

Easter 2012

RyLeigh and the Dogs Eating Breakfast

No matter where RyLeigh decides to eat breakfast the dogs follow her because she drops more than she eats and sometimes she feels generous and puts the bowl on the floor and lets the dogs eat alittle then wants the bowl back so she can finish her breakfast.

Is There Something Wrong With This Picture?

Yes, there is definitely something wrong with this picture! Just look at Jessie's face! Oh My! I asked him "whats up with that face" he said " I hate taking pictures". I dont think thats true because I took more later and he didnt look like that! hahahaha

Facebook VS Blogger

It has been a long time since I posted much on my blog and the reason for this is that I fell into the "Facebook" trap. It consumed my days, I found myself checking Facebook in the morning before work and in the evening after work and then checking useless yet time consuming posts looking for something interesting and wasting very valuable time that really should have been spent with family or cleaning or cooking and finally decided to get rid of my facebook and return to the world of blogging. BYE BYE FACEBOOK!

My first post back is about Disney on Ice - Dare to Dream.
My dearest friends Laura and Shannon Paden bought me, Jessie and Rainey tickets to see Disney on Ice (they bought tickets for us last year also, because they love us so much! :) ) We had a lady in front of us take this picture for us, it is out of focus but we all wanted to be in the picture so had a stranger take on for us and she sucked, but oh well.