High Quality Canvas of Zoo Picture from Meijer

I got my BzzAgent coupon yesterday and Jenn, my wife, tracked down some of her recent pictures taken on our Canon Rebel XS and had a tough choice (we've gotten lucky with some of our shots)  We chose a picture of a polar bear looking our way from our trip to the Cincinnati Zoo, it had good composition and we thought it would be great on canvas.


On my way home from work yesterday, I stopped at Meijer to get the canvas ordered. The kiosks are well setup and I was able to plug in my drive, setup my picture to fit on the canvas, and get my order placed and prepaid in just a few minutes. Today my we picked it up and it turned out great. The colors were darker than the original, but luckily it worked with the photo. The image quality was great, no pixellation or distortion like I've seen with some photo vendors.


Original picture:

Picture of it:

Pros:

• Reasonable price (they were running them on sale for $19.99)
• Good quality
• Photo program was very accurate in presenting what would show up on front

 Cons: 

• Colors were a little darker than the original
• Corners are a little rough (but hard to notice when on display)

 Tips:

• Make sure you keep some background visible around the edge of a picture to account for the 1" crop (the image wraps around the frame 
• If you don't have much extra background in the picture, fire up a photo editor and selectively stretch the edges so you can keep your subject on the front
• Be aware of the deeper color appearance (perhaps lighten it a bit ahead of time)

Original BzzAgent review post

Starting the Fish Tank Anew

Over the weekend that I watched the kids, I had cleaned the fish tank thoroughly in the interest of just getting that cleaning out of the way. Little did I know that it would spark the kids wanting fishies again.

The week after I got the tank filled and get the water chemistry to what it should be for fish. Last time I had tons of trouble getting it stable at the level wanted, but this time it took just 2 adjustments and the water was good. We also got some new decorations: a bubbling volcano and dolphins.

We figured we'd get the fish tank setup after the weekend with Jenn's race (which she got 3rd overall female in!) and after the fun photo session with family at the botanical gardens in Ann Arbor so we could keep an eye on things the week after. Jenn picked up our starter fish Monday: two little zebras since they should be pretty hardy and handle a "fresh" tank before we get the nitrogen cycle managed. So far they are doing good and given the relatively large tank for 2 small fish, we haven't had any nasty chemical changes yet. Eventually we are going to get some catfish to put in (Natalie loves them).

Hopefully this post shows up right, including the tank picture...

Day 2 of October Weekend With Kids

The second day of the weekend was a success :)

Daniel enjoyed his extra reading time before naptime as he had yesterday. Natalie even spent some time resting as well (great suggestion, Jenn!) It left me time to get the fish tank cleaned out as I had been intending to do for a little while.

After naptime, we had a little "Harry Potter" fun-time and watched the 2nd two movies back-to-back. After the movies and dinner Natalie drew some wizard pictures and practiced writing her name a bit.

As for dinner, I made two boxes of Macaroni and Cheese. I'm really glad I made two batches since the kids ate it ALL, aside from my two servings.

Day 1 of October Weekend With Kids

Figure I'd start off my intention to keep blogging w/ little "journal" entries about the weekend w/ the kids.

Day one of my weekend alone with the kids has come to an end.

Jenn's leaving in the morning didn't cause any sort of meltdowns with Daniel even though he was very clingy to her the past few days.

Both kids were pretty good most of the day, not too many scuffles over toys :)

Lunch was a special of toast n' eggs.

Dinner was a California pizza & grilled cheese. Why grilled cheese? Natalie doesn't like pizza sauce! She's missing out big time!

We ended up watching "Air Buddies" about 3-4 times today. Natalie's new favorite movie since I borrowed it from the library yesterday. Later we watched "Howl's Moving Castle".

The kids both loved the movie and actually SAT STILL for it. For a short while I was able to get them both sitting together with me under a blanket.

After getting all of the kids to bed, time to take a mental break and watch "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull".

Signing off this Friday and looking forward to what Saturday brings.

Tom's Long-lost Update

I intended to write a blog-post every 2 weeks and have failed to keep up. My other New Year's goal of writing/publishing a book is also a little bit behind... but more on that later. On with the long-lost update to catch up on things.
Jenn has been keeping up with her running regimen and placing excellently in a few of her recent races, including 1st Woman in the Hammer Run. She's working towards 13.1 miles of running for her half-marathon in September. This weekend she has to run 9 miles, a "small" step up from 8 miles last weekend... quite impressive! She's looking great these days, but is having a "problem" with clothes frequently getting "too big" for her.
Daniel is being a little stinker these days. Nothing terribly new about that. He doesn't talk much, but he's certainly learning words. He "accidentally" uses new and correct words and then refuses to repeat. Our guess is that he is stubborn and/or a perfectionist of words.
Little miss Natalie is starting to play nicely more often with Daniel, especially now that Daniel is starting to use his imagination playing with the toys. It does of course lead to typical troubles, since they want to play with the same toys and get into arguments about them... nothing special there.

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The other weekend we visited family around Indianapolis and checked out the Indianapolis Children's Museum. The kids loved it! On our way out, Natalie told us how we need to go other places and see the museums there. Just today Natalie was talking about dinosaurs and asking about which dinosaur had the sharpest teeth. I mentioned that a paleontologist might now and she brought up the Children's Museum and started going on about how somebody there might know and how she liked all the stuff there.

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I hope to get back on track with my family blog-post every 2 weeks, so look for one coming up the 16th. As for my book writing, I've narrowed down the sort of book I plan on writing first: has magic and can be for Natalie and Daniel now or in the relatively near future. I figured if I added my children to the audience to get a little more out of the writing experience.

Norris Dam Wedding Trip

Jenn and her mom, Lora, were invited to photograph the wedding of a family friends' daughter in Tennessee. They hosted the wedding in a park pavilion in Norris Dam State Park.

The trip provided a great little mini-vacation for the weekend + 1 day away from the house. The trip down put us through Van Wert, Cincinnati, and Lexington. The roads toward the end of the trip were a little crazy, up high in the mountains and large cliffs. Luckily the rain that started towards the end of the drive wasn't too bad when we went in those areas.

The site of the wedding was pretty cool. Getting there involved driving over the Norris Dam and up a short, winding road up a hill. The pavilion was large and had a fireplace built in with two grill stations setup on either side. The wedding day was a little chilly and only later when we were cleaning up did the forecast rain show up.

Both kids enjoyed the trip quite a bit:

• They got to see the Washburn Grandparents and Melissa.
• Natalie found a little buddy at the wedding... though together they were a little trouble.
• Daniel got to people-watch and be daddy's lil' buddy.
• Hotel had a saltwater swimming pool

The swimming pool was a hit for Daniel and Natalie. Natalie insisted on trying to swim on her own... though she can't keep herself up in the water yet. Daniel loved splashing and bounced in and out of the water. The fact that it was saltwater didn't seem to bother at all, probably for the fact that it seemed to be a relatively low concentration of salt (esp compared with ocean-water). One of the nice things about the pool was that it didn't have that used-chlorine smell to it. That could be attributed to the fact that someone somehow added chlorine to it when they weren't supposed to (apparently can't do that with saltwater pools), so they had to drain it and completely clean it out shortly before we came to the hotel.

This Year's Fiction Book Plan

For one of my New Year's resolutions, I stated that I would write and publish a book this year. I believe that I may have finally come up with my subject matter. Watching Netflix movies / television episodes and listening to podcasts, I found a good working "environment" that I can write a story in.

For more and a place to comment, see my original blog post: This Year's Fiction Book Plan

Cool little eBooks for lil' kids

Natalie wanted me to find her a book on fairies to read tonight to her, but we don't have any that she hasn't read yet... So I went looking through Barnes and Noble's kids eBook selection with no success. It's pretty hard to find ones that are for her age group, for the Nook, AND about fairies. They don't have the "Rainbow Magic" series of fairy books by Daisy Meadows that Natalie loves in eBook form at B&N. Looking further into the book series and eBooks, looks like they have them for Amazon's Kindle... or I can buy Nook-compatible versions from the UK.

Now, back to the search for a book for tonight to read to her... I managed to find a picture-book with Dragons: Dragon's Alphabet Soup: Learn ABC with Eric the Dragon by Rachel Yu, Michael Yu. When I brought the Nook to her room after buying the book online, she was surprised that we already had the book ready to read. She's used to picking out books from the library and waiting for me to pick them up from the library when they are ready. After we finished that, she wanted to read another, so I went and bought another book right there while talking about the other book. Seeing that Natalie liked the first book by Rachel Yu, I got another: A Dragon Named Dragon. That one she liked as well.

One of the impressive little facts about these books is that they are written by a 14-year old. Goes to show that anybody can be author books these days with the great ways for self-publishing that have come about.

Natalie's Ghoulish Entry Into Story Making

Here's a little storyline I worked with Natalie to make. She's got quite an imagination, and is good at mixing in stuff she's seen from movies.

The story begins with a baby ghost looking for the mama ghost. It's flying through the air going "wooooooooooo". The ghost & grass were drawn by me, however everything else was colored by Natalie. The "wooo" is most likely a little reference by Natalie to one of Daniel's sounds he makes when he just wants to make a bunch of noise.

The mama ghost is looking around for the baby ghost and doesn't know where to find him. Everything in this was drawn by Natalie. I helped coloring the sky/grass a little bit.

The mama ghost found the baby ghost and did what mama and baby ghosts (apparently) do: squish together and be one. They are flying over a beach with a little water looking for the daddy ghost. I took the mama and baby pictures and traced them together. Natalie did all the coloring in this one.

Here a ghost is in the water... it was going to be the daddy ghost but Natalie vetoed that. Natalie directed what the picture would be with the ghost, water, and fish. She colored in the water, and I did the fishes. The story "ended" with disinterest as Natalie embarked on another idea.

In this picture, a baby ghost is trying to turn a baby that the mother is holding into a ghost. I did all the quick drawing here, anticipating Natalie changing/coloring... but she didn't. She took this idea from Ghostbusters 2 and the flying ghost-Janosz taking Oscar.

Daniel the Dinner Fiend

At dinner-time, Daniel has proven to be significantly less picky than Natalie is nowadays. He normally puts away twice what she eats... except on the occasional day where she eats 3-4 helpings of whatever she's eating at the time. Last Sunday, Daniel enjoyed Jenn's "Shepherd's Pie" (2nd helping pictured). He loved the peas and when not shoveling handfuls of the mashed potato+cauliflower +meat+etc mix, he was mining for peas.

Today he had a dinner of some of the left-over Shepherd's Pie, cheese, and some of the herb-crusted chicken that, ever since we tried it, has been on our menu just about every week. He didn't do so well at eating dinner today as he was very tired when we started dinner late.

One of Daniel's good traits is that he LOVES his sleep and has no qualms about trying to get himself upstairs at bedtime. Now... when he gets up there, he's not always the best about getting ready for bed, but more often than not he goes to bed quietly once the lights are out. The downside to his love of sleep is that if we cannot let him get his sleep when he wants it, such as when we're out, he can turn into quite the cranky kid.

Battling Natalie's Ghosts and Monsters

Tom here again. A short while ago I made the mistake of letting Natalie watch Ghostbusters 2. She loved the movie and kept on watching it. I went to the library and borrowed the first Ghostbusters for her to watch. She loved that too.
Recently, though, she's been afraid of monsters and ghosts. She had the problem a while before Ghostbusters, but its back again. It's quite a challenge to help her to not be afraid. Some things we've tried:

• Tell her that we've made the monsters/ghosts go away. Doesn't work so well since she reasons that they'll come back.
• Take a note from the Ghostbusters and "trap" the monsters: Have her either color or draw the monster/ghost and then have her draw a "trap" for it. She loved coloring them in and then drawing the trap. Taking it a little further, she enjoyed tearing/cutting the picture to make that monster go away. Not a good long term solution though as she thinks up another.
• Recent one, working so far: we don't let monsters in the house.  We lock the door.

Amazingly enough... that one seems to be working ok. She hasn't come up with a way the monsters can get here since we lock the door. Guess we may have to hold off on "Monsters, Inc." since she might be afraid of those monsters or come up with the idea that mean monsters don't need to come through the front door, they can just come through closets magically.

Snow Fun with Natalie

Full Album

Tom here for another bi-weekly post :)
Today Natalie went out to have fun in the snow as I started the task of shoveling the snow off of the drive-way. She started out by trying to help pick up snow in the driveway and throw it to the side. It wasn't until Jenn came back from the YMCA that Natalie was convinced that she should go into the yard to play in the snow.

It was a very snowy day and didn't stop until around 3 PM. It was also the light-and-fluffy kind of snow that is not very good to play in... However I did convince her to "dig" a snowman by digging a small hole for the head, and having her dig other holes for the body. She suggested arms, so we dug those out. It did not photograph at all well. After that, Natalie made a snow angel and stomped around in the snow.

We also managed to take a little video of her walking around. Too bad I took it sideways so it doesn't look to good in Youtube (though at least I was able to rotate it!). Depending on how it shows up, you might have to open the link.

Some of Tom's Christmas Presents

Tom here, again. Thought I'd put a little post on some cool things I got for Christmas as sort of a general thanks and hi-lite on some cool things. Now... I'm limiting this to a few things... otherwise the post would be WAY too long, I got tons of cool things.

Awesome little keychain I got. I finally can manage all the many keys I have to deal with and pop off ones I don't need all the time. No need to keep van keys on the chain all the time during the work-week... no need to keep work keys and USB stick on the chain during the weekend.

Awesome teapot! Makes brewing quality tea quite a bit easier. Put your tea in (loose-leaf or tea bags are just fine), pour in the water, wait, then put the teapot on top of your pitcher/cup to drain. Just need to remember the pesky little task of remembering to get it taken care of after ~ 3 minutes to keep the tea from going bad. Some tea I had last week from Christina's loose-leaf tea from India she got me didn't taste so good. Today I made some and it was perfect... must have forgotten to keep track of time last week.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers is a pretty fun and unique game for the Wii. This game is pretty cool and VERY different from any other Final Fantasy game that I have ever seen. Broken down, the gameplay involves you taking control of things and moving/throwing using the Wiimote. A fun battle I played recently was a battle in a frozen wasteland against a King Behemoth. Battles have quite a different feel from other games and often take a short while to complete... although if you're too slow, all the monsters go away and you miss out on completing the battle for more treasure.

Oberon Design Sky Dragon Nook Cover. I got this cover for my Nook eReader and it works GREAT. Oberon Design did a great job on putting together this nice dyed leather cover. I find that besides looking good and protecting it, it makes it much more natural to read. When folded back, it adds enough body to make it like reading a normal book as opposed to a thin eReader.

Tom's Day Alone With The Kids

Time to put in my bi-weekly blog-post.

Today, Jenn went to my cousin's baby shower down in Indianapolis while I watched the kids for the whole day.
The day started with Daniel, early in the morning as Jenn left. He was pretty good for me and even went down very well for his morning nap. Right after that, Natalie was up and ready for her breakfast.

The whole day went pretty well. Daniel played with his bike quite a bit and hopping up on the couch with me when I was on it. Natalie had me read some of her library books and watched some movies passively. I have to say that Daniel's ability to point out exactly what he wants... sometimes... helps out immensely. A good example is when digging through the fridge for something for him, I pulled out milk and he was passive, but when I pulled out apple-juice, he pointed at it and said with a happy face "that!".

Looking forward to a good night's rest, however... even on a good day, watching the kids alone can be a bit of a drain (though being sick doesn't help any).

I read an article lately that people who exercise get sick less and when they do their symptoms aren't as severe. Apparently my body failed to read that article because I am sicker than I have been in years! This is especially frustrating because it is hampering my workout efforts. I have been suffering through swimming (not easy when you can't breathe!) but can't go run until I can breathe again.

And of course, Daniel is sick... AGAIN! This means that he can't go to childwatch at the Y. So, even walking is out of the question. I am worried about Daniel, the poor kid is ALWAYS sick. He catches EVERYTHING and of course when he does get something its never the mild form of it, he gets severe symptoms. It hasn't ever progressed past a cold so there isn't much the doctors can do for him.

Natalie so far is healthy, but I am sure she will catch it soon enough! I am praying that we are all healthy enough for this weekend. I obviously need to be healthy, but I need the kids to be semi healthy too because I wouldn't leave Tommy with both of them sick (or even one of them sick if the symptoms are bad).

Natalie goes to the dentist tomorrow morning for a consult on a cavity that she needs to get filled. So sad for her, but unfortunately she probably needs to get used to it. They said her teeth are very "pitted" and will get cavities easier. Lovely. :(

Following Tommy's lead...

Since Tommy has vowed to update this blog more I figured I might as well try to make the same commitment.

Many of you may know that the last three months of my life I have made some major changes to my lifestyle...
- from 6-8 cans of diet coke a day to ONE per day (some days none)
- started exercising again, started out swimming an hour a day, then added in walking and now I am running as well. I spend 2-3 hours a day at the Y working out.
- adapted healthier food habits - less fast food and boxed dinners more home cooking, low cal, low fat, and low sodium!
- realistic dieting! I am not depending on salads at all, I am just cooking very low fat recipes and eating things I want in moderation... it feels much more sustainable this way!

As a result of these changes I have lost a total of 48.8 lbs to date in 13 weeks. This is a huge amount of weight to lose but I still have at least 50 more to lose. I would love to lose even more, but my goal is 50 lbs for the time being.

Tommy's resolutions revolve around writing, mine revolve around dedicating myself to being healthier!
1. Lose another 50 pounds
2. Run a 5K (at least one, would love to do more)
3. Walk a half marathon.
4. Start training for a mini triathlon.
And last but not least, to throw in something thats NOT about me working out...
5. To be a better wife and mother.

That last one needs a bit of explaining. I have been so wrapped up in getting into shape that I feel like Tommy and the kids are kind of getting shafted as far as my time goes. (I try to feel less guilty about it by telling myself that they want me to be healthy and its just a temporary thing!) So while I can't eliminate the time at the gym, I am hoping to use my time at home with the family in a more positive and constructive way!

Natalie: Natalie is 3 and a half now, hard to believe... it feels like yesterday that we found out we were expecting her. She is starting to show a rambunctious and sassy side! She will be starting preschool next fall, we just sent in her registration and deposit. She will be in a 4/5 class to make sure she is (hopefully) prepared for kindergarten the year after! We find ourselves saying alot "she's to smart for her own good," and its quite true. She can do simple math and identify letters/colors. But, most impressive are her reasoning skills. There are often times that Tommy and I just look at each other and shake our heads... she never ceases to amaze us. She has been on a dress streak lately, she only wants to wear dresses - and let me tell you, winter is NOT the time to decide you only want to wear dresses. It's definitely been a challenge.

Daniel: My little bruiser... he is 16 months old now. He is SOLID, you'd never know that there was a point in his life where they were worried he wasn't big enough. Not to say he's fat, I think solid is definitely the right word. He loves balls and cars, and anything "boy." He got a tricycle that converts to a rocker for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Harning and he loves to get up on it and rock all day long. He doesn't talk a ton, but I am told thats pretty normal for boys. His favorite word is "mama" and he is definitely a momma's boy. He also says "dada"and "duice" (juice) on a regular basis. He has many other words, but he relies alot on those three and we don't hear the others as often. He will eat almost anything and sleeps a ton!

Looking forward to a trip down to Carmel in about a week and a half, it will be the first time that Tommy has been totally responsible for the kids for more than a few hours. I have never spent the night away from Daniel, and was only away from Natalie when I was in the hospital after Daniel was born. I am nervous to say the least! I am actually going down for a baby shower on Saturday, but plan to stay in a hotel Saturday night and then go home on Sunday to give Tommy more time to fly "solo" with the kids. I think he is going to be very surprised and EXHAUSTED by the time the weekend in finished!

Well, I think thats all for now. Hope everyone has a pleasant 2011.

Tom's New Year's Resolution for 2011

I'm submitting that my New Year's Resolution for 2011 is "To Write".

To clarify and make it measurable, I am starting out with the following goals:

* a family blog post every 2 weeks
* a published book this year

This blog post does not count against the blog post every 2 weeks, except perhaps to kick off the deadline measurement. As for the published book... it would be through Smashwords, a great resource for self-publishing. Depending on the type of book, I might even offer it as a paper-form through some service... not sure which.

Look forward to putting a blog post out 2 weeks from now. :)