A GLEEful Project

I LOVE PHOTOSHOP and all the creative possibilities it gives me. 


Before Christmas,  my son, Adam, was looking to make his Christmas gift to his girlfriend more special.  I asked him a few questions about what kind of things she likes, and found our she is a big fan of the TV show "Glee".  BINGO.  I googled "Glee" and came up with a great idea.

 

Adam ended up buying her a nice bracelet, but we decided to package the bracelet in a CD case with a cool GLEE cover.  I got my camera out and took a few pictures of Adam against a plain background.

After some color-corrections and cropping, I came up with this basic picture to begin.

Next I had to cut him out of the picture so I could change the background.
The wall was gold and we needed a more vibrant color with a radiant glow in the center.

 

We decided on a bright green background (since it was a Christmas gift!)

 I added the green over the top of the original picture....

Then I put the cut-out picture over the top so it looks like the glow is behind him.

Now it was time for the letters.  Adam found a font that is very similar to the one used in Glee.

It looked good but needed a drop shadow.

And the finishing touch "Special Edition Christmas Album" on the top.

It was a fun little project that I could never have done with my BELOVED PHOTOSHOP!

Shhhhhhh! DON'T TELL VANCE!

My husband is a very sweet, kind, generous man.  He has so many good qualities and I love him so much.  BUT, there is one quality about him that can be VERY irritating.  Whenever we play a game of any kind, he is VERY competitive and tends to win A LOT!  This is mildly irritating because I am competitive too, but WHEN he wins,  HE GLOATS!  He gloats BADLY and gets this superior attitude like he is smarter than everyone else. 

Ok, lets rewind a little bit to Christmas.  My main gift to Vance this year was an iPad.  It's the coolest thing I've ever seen!  The APPS that you can download for it are so much fun!  When I was setting up his iPad for him,  I downloaded a few game apps.  WORD SEEK was the first game that we tried.

The game gives you a 4x4 square of letters with point values on each letter (like in scrabble).  The point of the game is to find words by dragging your finger over the letters, which have to be connected either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. 

You have 3 minutes to get as many words as you can and you get a score at the end based on the letters you used for each word and the value of each letter.    On Christmas day, we began playing as a family, with everyone chipping in to get as many words as possible.  Our high score was only @6000.   Over time since then, Vance has become addicted to this game.  About 4 days ago,  he scored 8400 and he was EXTREMELY proud of himself.  He was SO SURE that nobody would beat his score that he offered $100 to the first person who beat him.  Kerry immediately started playing to try to beat his score (because she is very competitive too!)

Vance may be good and fast at finding words, but I am the person who always reads directions and figures out exactly how things work!

As I was exploring the Main Menu, I saw there was an OPTIONS button.  I clicked on it and discovered something SO WONDERFUL!  You can actually change the size of the game board AND change the amount of time you get to play!   GOLDMINE!!!  I went to Annie's room and closed the door.  I asked her if she wanted to earn $100 for camp next summer.   Of course she did.  When I showed her my discovery, her eyes lit up with delight!  She finds her father's antics very IRRITATING too. 

So we changed the game board  and time limit, and ran the score up to over 10,000 points!  We didn't want to go too high right away.  Then we changed the game board back to the smaller size and time limit.
Annie took the game downstairs and pretended to play for a half hour or so before she announced her SUCCESS!  Vance immediately accused her of cheating, but then realized there was no way to cheat, so he paid up.  Ever since then,  he has been playing for hours every day trying to beat Annie's score!!!!  He got past 9000 last night, so we decided it was time for someone else to run the score even higher.  Everyone is in on the joke now and greatly enjoys watching him sweat.  After Vance went to bed last night,  we ran the high score up to  10,475 and this time Kerry's friend Jojo took credit!  THIS REALLY BOTHERS HIM NOW THAT TWO PEOPLE ARE SCORING HIGHER THAN HIM!

 
So here he is tonight, watching football and playing Word Seek again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again........................  HAHAHAHA!  It warms my heart!! 

Lessons from My Father

It has been almost two years since my father had a stroke which led to his passing in early April of 2009 at the age of 81.  I still think of him often, sometimes with a smile and sometimes with tears.   He was the single most influential person in my life, and that continues to be true even now.  I admired almost everything about him.  They say that actions speak louder than words.  My dad's actions were his teachings.

 

 

He grew up on a farm in West Rutland, Vermont.  There was a lot to be done and each of the kids did their share.  My father had a tremendous work ethic.

One of the many jobs my father held was a bartender, although he rarely drank much himself.

 (That is my mother with the dark hair.)

If you are able to  do the job yourself, do it. Don't waste money by paying someone to do it for you.

I can probably count on only one hand the number of times my dad hired someone to do work for our family.  If something was broken, he fixed it.  If he didn't know how, he figured it out.  He was up for any challenge, big or small.  His creativity and logic combined to allow him to be successful in just about anything he attempted.   I remember how proud he was when he came home from work one day to find that I had taken my 10 speed bike apart, cleaned it, and put was putting it back together.  He taught us that you can't be afraid to try!

 My dad and my sister, Lori, standing on the new deck he built on her
home in Alaska the summer before he died.

 Here he is installing a new dishwasher for us when he was 76 years old.

He cut down trees and build a multi-level deck and screened-in porch on our house.

 Rain did not stop him.  Vance was so happy to be working with him out in the rain!

            



Look for the good in everything and everyone.  


He would always say "That's the beauty part of it!"  He was an optimist through and through.  He saw the beauty in all people and things.

 

                      Don't forget what it's like to be a kid. 

Act silly sometimes and don't worry about

what people will think.

 

 Stay active and be a big part of your kids lives

and your grandkids lives. You will be remembered more for what you do WITH them than any material gift you give to them.

 

 Never, ever give up without giving your best effort, no matter what life throws at you!

 

After his stroke, Dad never gave up hope that he would regain his ability to walk.

  

And he never lost his sense of humor (You wouldn't believe how often he stuck his tongue out for pictures throughout his life!)

 He told us his rehabilitation was the hardest thing he had ever faced...and he gave it 110%!

 Here he was released from the hospital to the rehab center.  He was happy to be able to ride

 in his red pick-up truck again.  It was his pride and joy!

                     And last but not least, keep smiling!

My brother and my father really liked the speech therapist and thought she was cute.  My dad gave me an extra big smile for this picture!

After watching him take care of my mother when she was at the end of her life, we learned from him the importance of being there for your loved ones, no matter how inconvenient or difficult it may be.  Cherish all the time you have and don't let them down when the going gets tough.  I am proud to say that my dad was alone for only a couple of days in the 2 months he was in the hospital and rehab in Florida.  My brother and sister and I were with him from morning until night.  We wouldn't have had it any other way.

Surprises for Sam

"Perception is merely reality filtered through the prism of your soul."

               ~Christopher A. Ray

There were four ways to perceive the events of the day.

Your girlfriend is coming to your house to have dinner with your family and closest friends.

The girlfriend of your son/brother is coming to your house to have dinner with your and your son's/brother's closest friends.

Your are going to your boyfriend's house to spend time with his family and closest friends.

Your friend has invited you to meet and have dinner with his girlfriend.



It was an important day for everyone involved for a myriad of reasons.
But nonetheless,  everyone wanted it to go well.

While Adam went to the train station in Hartford to pick up Sam, we were busy cooking and cleaning and preparing for her visit.  We knew Sam was on the quiet side, and we wanted to think of a way to "break the ice".  Being the creative, funny family that we are, we came up with a few ideas that we hoped would let Sam know that this day was not taken lightly by our family and make her feel welcome!

We were not disappointed.  When Adam and Sam arrived they were laughing after spotting a few of Annie and Kerry's home-made signs along their route. 

Sam's mom sent along a huge box of beautiful Godiva chocolates.  Yum!

As Vance and I were in the kitchen preparing for dinner,  I heard Sam scream and looked over to see what had happened.  She had discovered our other surprise, meant for later that evening.  Kerry and Annie had printed 60 little pictures of Sam's face and put them all over the first floor of the house.  We had planned a little scavenger hunt for our guests.  Sam had picked up a photo book from our Lake George vacation this year and was surprised to see her face taped to the front cover!

Once we told them the plan and they knew about the hidden pictures, they were suddenly able to spot quite a few more in plain view and walked around the house searching for even more.  Kerry and Annie had placed them in quite a few funny and interesting spots!

With a while to go before dinner, they took the camera and headed out to retrieve the signs and to see a little bit of our town.

This is the tree in the middle of the parking lot at Ellington High School.  Beautiful picture!

Adam's friends arrived and we had a nice pasta dinner.  There was a lot of joking around and laughter. Since everyone had been friends on Facebook for quite a while,  I think they felt they knew each other already.  That's the funny thing about the internet and social networking.  

                                                 Jojo and Kerry

                             Mr. Wiggles pretends to be a dinner guest.

                            Parker, Jordan, and Andrew

After dinner, the guests participated in the Sam Lee scavenger hunt.  The prize - a $25 itunes gift card.

 Jordan and Lucas tied, but Lucas was the winner in a 2 minute overtime round!

Caramel apples for dessert!

                                 Maggie and Taylor

There were pictures with Sam to finish off the evening!

  

At the end of the evening, the hosts of any get-together look back and hope that everyone had fun and enjoyed themselves.  Tonight, though, everyone was here because they care so much about Adam. We wanted to get to know Sam because he cares so much about her. 

But getting to know someone is a process - it doesn't happen over one dinner.  It is an accumulation of "perceptions" that happen over time.  I believe tonight was only the beginning...